‘Burn the Contemporary Ravans’ Vijayadashami Poster at JNU

02 October 2025 | Jawaharlal Nehru University

‘Burn the Contemporary Ravans’ Poster that implicates Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, Afzal Guru alongside Terrorism, Separatism, Patriarchy, Naxalism and Maoism as ‘Contemporary Ravans’.

Rejoinder to the Above Poster by JNUSU with an ABVP-Effigy Burning Gathering

Foil the venomous attempt of ABVP to use religion for political propaganda

JNU rejects the politics of hate and Islamophobia!

On another blatant and dastardly display of Islamophobia, exploiting religious sentiments to harvest political benefits, the ABVP is organising a Ravan Dahan in which two former students of JNU – Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam – have been depicted as Ravan, which the ABVP plans to burn today.

Why Umar and Sharjeel?

Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam have been incarcerated for the last five years and are still under trial. Their bail pleas have been rejected multiple times on flimsy grounds. Intellectuals, democratic activists, and jurists across the globe have raised concerns over the incarceration of political prisoners under BJP’s rule. Umar and Sharjeel are among the most prominent cases.

We want to ask a few simple questions to the RSS-BJP and their ilk:

How can they run a public trial of Sharjeel and Umar when their cases are still under trial?

The ABVP is conducting this Ravan Dahan on 2nd October, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. If the ABVP is so concerned about the nation, why have they not put Nathuram Godse’s face as Ravan in their poster? Do they not consider Godse a terrorist or a threat to the nation?

Why has the ABVP not depicted Baba Ram Rahim, a convicted serial sexual offender who is serving jail terms but conveniently gets parole every time there is an election in Haryana, so that he can garner votes for the BJP?

Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma were the main culprits of the North East Delhi riots of 2020. They have been openly spewing communal venom in public. Yet, to this day, neither has been arrested nor tried. Why have they not been depicted in the communally charged posters anonymously circulated by the ABVP?

The RSS and ABVP are known for their toxic history of using religious sentiments against their political opponents. In 1945, one of the RSS organs, Agrani, published a cartoon in which Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, and other stalwarts of the Indian freedom movement were shown as Ravana, while Savarkar and Syama Prasad Mukherjee were depicted as attacking them with arrows as Rama. Shockingly, Nathuram Godse, the murderer of Mahatma Gandhi, sat on the editorial board of Agrani.

Friends, the RSS and ABVP are known for dividing society on communal lines. We request all students to isolate these forces and stand up against their politics of hate and disharmony.

Nitish – President

Manisha – Vice President

Munteha – General Secretary

JNUSU