RSF Condemns the Targeting of activists Abhishek and Deepak

Hereby we share a statement by the RSF.

We, the Revolutionary Students’ Front, strongly condemn the targeting of Abhishek, a student activist at Maharishi Dayanand University (Rohtak) and President of Chhatra Ekta Manch, and Deepak, a labour-rights activist and former Chhatra Ekta Manch organiser, by the Gestapo-like outfit NIA, under the fabricated “Lucknow Conspiracy Case.” These actions are part of the Brahminical Hindutva fascist state’s widening assault on organised student and democratic movements.

Deepak, formerly associated with Chatra Ekta Manch, has for years participated in student-related struggles, and now works with Majdoor Adhikar Sangathan in the Kundli Industrial Area, which is a workers’ organisation with a decade-long history of defending labour rights. It is important to recall that his colleague Shiv Kumar was arrested and tortured by the Haryana Police during the 2021 Farmers’ Movement. The summoning of Deepak follows the same pattern of targeting those who stand with the struggling masses of the country. Abhishek, the president of Chhatra Ekta Manch, and a young student organiser on campus, is being targeted for the same reason. His activism challenges the state’s attempts to stifle dissent inside universities. The fascist state fears organised student activism, hence the deliberate attempt to drag him into a fabricated conspiracy case. This manufactured “Lucknow Conspiracy Case,” also referred to as the “Maoists’ NRB Revival Case,” has led to raids and interrogations at the homes of about 30 activists across Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, and Chandigarh. It has been used to arrest labour-rights activist Priyanshu Kashyap, documentary filmmaker Vishal Singh, and Chandigarh-based anti-displacement advocate Ajay Kumar. This mirrors the Bhima Koregaon model, where dozens of democratic activists were falsely implicated in the same witch-hunt machinery that led to the state-sponsored murder of Father Stan Swamy.

We demand the immediate withdrawal of the NIA notice issued to Abhishek and an end to the targeting of Deepak. We demand the complete withdrawal of the bogus, fabricated Maoists’ NRB Revival / Lucknow Conspiracy Case. The witch-hunting of students, intellectuals, workers, and activists who expose state violence must stop. The NIA’s raids, summons, and intimidation tactics must end, and universities must be free from state-agency interference so that students can organise and dissent without fear.

The state unleashes terror on students’ and democratic movements precisely because these struggles threaten its fascist agenda. We call upon all democratic, progressive, and leftist forces to stand in solidarity with the comrades and unitedly resist the Brahminical Hindutva Fascist state’s brutal crackdown on dissent using draconian measures.