Today, on Thursday, February 1, several student organisations came together for a mega rally in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, under the banner of United Students of India with the slogan 'Reject NEP, Save Education. Reject BJP, Save India'.

The rally was flagged off by Udhayanidhi Stalin, Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Tamil Nadu, along with Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Minister of School Education; Mayukh Biswas General Secretary, Students' Federation of India; VP Sanu, President, SFI and other office bearers of student organisations.

The rally concluded with a public meeting where representatives from 16 student organisations spoke.

On behalf of SFI, All India President VP Sanu addressed the gathering, highlighting how the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party (RSS-BJP)-led Central Government has dismantled public education, how the current regime is misusing the state apparatus like the position of governor to attack the federal structure.

Similarly, SFI Tamil Nadu State Secretary G Aravindhaswamy addressed the necessity for a progressive and democratic student community to take on the fight against the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 strongly and the need to defend public education.

The alliance United Students of India carried out its first rally at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in January. The second phase of the protest rally concluded in Chennai today, February 1. A third protest rally will be organised in Kolkata in March 2023.

Speaking about the rally, Dipshita Dhar, All India Joint Secretary, SFI, told EdexLive, “We are an anti-BJP, progressive student alliance and our main agenda is to reject NEP and reject BJP. We do not want an agenda of hate and religion that the party in power is spreading, we want an agenda of the students.”