The Democratic Students Union, an independent student organization based in JNU has been in the news lately. It's member's Umar and Anirban were arrested as part of a consipracy hatched by the BJP, ABVP and RSS to defame the communists of all hues in India.. They are now out on
bail.
 |
| Umar (left) and Anirban (right). Image-credit:thehindu.com |
The real tragedy that has gone unnoticed over the past year is the fact that DSU members chose to delete their blog maintained at http://dsujnu.blogspot.com in late 2014. The blog which was a rich source of information cannot be accessed now. Over a decade it had amassed a loyal readership of student activists and media professionals. It was started in 2007 and had received more than a million visitors.
I suspect the blog deletion was carried out as result of some internecine conflict they had with the Revolutionary Democratic Front on gender relations and patriarchal oppression. They later on issued a statement which can be read at the link below:
http://www.countercurrents.org/anirban221115.htm
What could be the other reasons for deleting their blog?
- Was the blog deleted it because it was under surveillance of the Intelligence Bureau and had transformed into threat to ordinary citizens?
- Was it hacked ? Members of the ABVP do possess this capability and have demonstrated it by hacking profiles of dissidents on Facebook.
Somebody from the organization should clarify because they owe an answer to their loyal readers !
If they indeed deleted it then all the work they did over a decade online has now been undone with a single click of the button. A great tragedy indeed. If they had retained this platform , it could have served them effectively at the time of the JNU crisis. A copy of the archives of DSU JNU blog is available
here.
