On 13th September 2018, elections to Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) was held, and the result of the same came by midnight. In the keenly contested election, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Parishad (ABVP) won three posts, while National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) won the post. Chatr-Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), the student wing of AAP drew a blank. NSUI is the student wing of Congress party and ABVP is the student wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
While nobody has any doubt about the affiliation of NSUI and CYSS, it seems many are not aware/confused about the affiliation of ABVP, who mistake it for student wing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). And this includes several mainstream media outlets and news agencies. While covering the news of DUSU election, several media houses reported that ABVP is BJP’s student wing.
News agency PTI introduced ABVP as “BJP’s student wing”.
NDTV thought that the contest was between Congress affiliated NSUI and the BJP-backed ABVP.
Times Now was confused between BJP and RSS, so they decided that ABVP is the student wing of the both BJP and RSS.
News18 had no such doubt, they are sure that ABVP is the student wing of BJP.
Another news agency UNI also thinks that BJP’s student wing is ABVP.
In the live update of the elections by Firstpost, ABVP keeps swinging between BJP and RSS.
Asian Age also wrote that ABVP is affiliated with BJP.
The same mistake was repeated by many other media houses.
It may be noted that BJP has its own separate student wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), and ABVP is not its student wing. In fact, ABVP is a much older organisation than BJP. ABVP was founded in 1949, while BJP came into existence in 1980 only.
But media keeps mistaking ABVP to be the student wing of BJP, the DUSU elections were not the first time the did it. In fact, ABVP’s website specifically mentions that it is not BJP’s wing. It says, “ABVP is not the students’ wing of BJP. We are an independent organisation. You may call us the students’ wing of RSS.”
