The context of the message is significant. It was addressed to the SSF and its activists on the occasion of their central conference, not to the participants of Bangladesh’s uprising as a whole. At no point in the video message does AISA leader Neha call for Bangladesh-like violence in India.
A careful reading of Neha’s words makes it clear that when she says Bangladesh’s Gen Z was “showing us the way”, she is referring to the young people who started a movement in Bangladesh for “democratic and voter rights”, and against “religious fundamentalism” and government crackdown on “public institutions and central universities”.
This cannot, by any reasonable interpretation, be construed as a call for a Bangladesh-like coup in India. Pro-BJP voices have omitted the context of the SSF conference and Neha’s address to its activists, misrepresenting her words as an endorsement of violence.
“Neha’s Words are being Taken out of Context”
Bazlur Rashid Firoz, secretary of the Socialist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist), told Alt News that Bora had not endorsed the violence that occurred in Bangladesh. He said, “Her words are being taken out of context”.
“She was congratulating SSF, a fellow Left-wing student organisation, for ‘showing us the way’. She goes on to explain how the SSF has stood its ground in the fight against religious fundamentalism, for restoring democratic and voting rights, and for demanding better education and employment opportunities,” he said. He added that Bora had also thanked the SSF for extending solidarity to the youth of India.
Alt News also spoke to Sucheta, a former AISA president and a central committee member of CPI(ML), who said Bora’s message had been intended specifically for the SSF and needed to be understood in that context.
She said, “This message of solidarity was addressed to the comrades of the Socialist Students’ Front (SSF). It was delivered in the context of the Gen Z movement that we witnessed in our subcontinent, particularly in Bangladesh, and the participation of secular and progressive forces in that movement.”
She added, “Neha used the term ‘religious fundamentalism’. She is speaking against such violence. Right-wing voices are trying to distort her message and misleadingly associate her speech with the violence.”
Neha Clarifies: ‘Message Directed at SSF’
Following the circulation of the clip, Neha herself posted a clarification on Instagram.
In the video, she says, “Right-wing accounts removed the logo of the SSF’s central conference and other identifying graphics from the original footage to use it for propaganda against me”. She explains, “These visual elements established that the video had been recorded for the Socialist Students’ Front’s sixth national conference, addressed to its activists to express solidarity with their struggles for democracy, students’ rights, education and communal harmony.” “And the student activists in India draw inspiration from these struggles,” she added.
Neha asserts that her message was “directed at the organisation’s struggles for democratic rights, student rights, accessible education and communal harmony”. She said that her reference to “drawing inspiration from Bangladesh concerned the progressive and secular elements of its student movement, rather than the entirety of the uprising or the political forces that subsequently gained influence.”