A mammoth rally of Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) of India on December 18 rocked Calicut city with slogans against commercialisation of education. The SIO activists were marching to greet the newly elected president of the organisation Bishruddin Sharqi for the next term of 2007-2008. The new president has taken over the charges from S. Zameer Qadri who retired recently from SIO after completion of 30 years of his age. Sharqi got elected in a four-day meeting of Zonal Advisory Council members held at Al-Jamia Islamia Shantapuram in Mallapuram district of Kerala. More than one hundred delegates from across the country participated in the electoral process.
A postgraduate from Calicut University, Mr. Bishruddin Sharqi has been a student activist as well as a good student leader since his college days. Brought up in Shantapuram and educated in Al-Jamia Islamia Shantapuram College, he was granted SIO membership in 1997. Earlier, he had joined the organisation as a member of the children’s wing in 1990. Prior to his election as SIO president, he was the campus secretary and advisory member of SIO Kerala zone.
Also Hashmatullah Khan has been named as the new General Secretary for the forthcoming term. Earlier he was the Zonal President of Karnataka during 2005-06 term. An Engineer by profession, Hashmatullah graduated from Gulbarga University and is presently pursuing MBA.
Other new office bearers of the organisation include A. Rafeeq of West Bengal who took over the charge as the Organising Secretary. K.K.Sohel of Kerala as Secretary (Public Relations), and Shibli Arsalan of Bihar as Secretary.
Moreover, 14 members of the Central Advisory Board were also elected. They are: A.Rafeeq (West Bengal), Khaled Mohsin (Maharashtra-North), Tanveer Parekh (A.P), Omair Anas(U.P. East), Faiz Ahmed (Tamilnadu), Fakhruddin Ahmed (A.P), Shakeel Ahmed (U.P. West), Dawood. C (Kerala), Sheheen. K (Kerala), Bilal. K (Kerala), Arif Ali (Rajasthan), Sibghatullah Husaini (A.P), Fazlurrahaman (Maharashtra-South), and Amir Iqbal (Bihar)
However, during the rally slogans were raised against commercialisation of education. More than 3000 students from different parts of Kerala with 150 delegates from several parts of India raised slogans like “O, the students of Indian Campuses, World is looking for you, Not the world of MNCs”, “Campus No Market” and “Boycott, boycott, boycott symbols of imperialism.”
The students raised their voices against “Dirty million market days” like the Valentine and Parents day calling these only “Card Days.”
The rally came to an end by turning into a public meeting with more than 4000 people participating in the meeting. Addressing the public meeting, national as well as regional leaders like Dr. Abdul Haq Ansari, Chief patron, SIO of India, and Muhammad Jafar, the first All India President of SIO urged the students to come forward to reconstruct the society. They called upon the students to make the campuses alive, not to convert the campuses into markets and to join hands to fight against Imperialism, Fascism, Globalisation, Privatisation and Liberalisation.
Dr. Abdul Haq Ansari called upon the State Government not to forget what they had promised to the people of Kerala. Otherwise, they might have to lose power as their predecessors had to.
S. Zameer Qadari, the outgoing president of SIO appealed to the gathering to make the SIO a vibrant ideological students organisation and turn the campuses into nation building centres.
The public meeting came to an end with Dr. Abdul Haq Ansari, and T. Arif Ali, State Patron, SIO announcing the newly elected national leaders of SIO as well as the state leaders of Kerala.¨