Is Demanding Education Anti-Democratic? Yogendra Yadav on JNU Row

At a JNU protests, Yogendra Yadav asks ‘someone with dreams but no money have no right to education?’ 

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Vishal Kumar

Amid chants demanding to make education affordable for all, hundreds took to the streets in Delhi on Saturday, 23 November, in support of the students' protest against the hostel fee hike in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Speaking to The Quint, Yogendra Yadav said, “We are witnessing privatisation of higher education, and all these tiny fee hikes, increase in costs, they are steps in that direction.”

“This is the moment in our history where millions of young people are entering higher education. They come with dreams, talent and hard work but they don’t have money. Does someone with dreams but no money have no right to education?”

Yogendra Yadav, founder of Swaraj Abhiyan

He added, “Our constitution’s preamble also talks about Right to Equal Opportunity. What is the quality of equality if you cannot access higher education?”

Yadav stated that JNU has raised a question that is much beyond JNU, referring to the fight against fee hike and the draft of National Education Policy 2019.

Talking about the massive participation of women in the march, he said, "In my school days, there was a proverb, ‘Naari ke sehbhaag bina, har badlav adhoora hain.’ (No change is complete unless women participate in it.) And that has been the culture of JNU.