Sabeer Chalana Content Curator
Content Curator
Yes, you heard it right! A bunch of 50 graduates of the prestigious IITs across the country have quit their full-time jobs to form a political party to agitate for the rights of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, the approval for which is yet awaited from the Election Commission.
Proudly naming their outfit as the ‘Bahujan Azad Party’ (BAP), the group includes members of SC, ST, and OBC community who believe that the backward classes haven’t received their deserved share of rights until now in terms of education and employment.
Naveen Kumar, leader BAP, and former IIT Delhi graduate says “We are a bunch of 50 people, all from different IITs, who have quit our full-time jobs to work for the party. We have applied to the Election Commission for an approval and are meanwhile doing ground work."
With a clear state of mind and no second thought towards their goals, the party members claim not to wish to jump the gun and aim for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“We do not wish to do a hurried job and end up being reduced to just one of those small political outfits with big ambitions. We will begin with contesting the 2020 Bihar assembly elections and then aim for the next Lok Sabha polls," Kumar said.
However, the party has already embarked on a social media campaign with posters comprising pictures of Subhas Chandra Bose, B R Ambedkar, APJ Abdul Kalam and others such.
“Once we have the registration, we will form small units of the party which will start working on the ground for our target groups. We also do not wish to pitch ourselves as a rival of any political party or ideology," Kumar added.
Other Similar Past Attempts
Such attempts have also been made in the past, details of a few of which have been summarised below for you.
- ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad)
An all-India right-wing student organisation affiliated to the RSS is said to be India’s largest student’s organisation with more than 3 million members. It was founded in 1949 with the initiative of an RSS activist, Balraj Madhok with the sole purpose to counter communist influences on university campuses. Described as the student-wing of RSS, various branches of ABVP tend to be involved in the Hindu-Muslim communal rights.
- Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
The AAP formerly launched on November 26, 2012 has grabbed eyeballs since then. The ruling party of the NCT of Delhi came into existence following conflicts between Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare regarding whether or not to politicise the ongoing ‘India against Corruption’ Movement that had been demanding Jan Lokpal Bill since 2011. Getting the bill into existence was its significant agenda.
- Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha
Considered to be the youth wing of BJP, the Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha was founded in 1978 is a cadre-based party. Campaigns regarding protests against inflation, unemployment, terrorism, health care reforms have been carried out since its inception.
With a direct and straight-forward approach of stepping forward for the minority communities of the country, let’s witness if BAP proves worthwhile to the dedicated and ambitious IIT alumni.
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