- Saturday, April 27, 2024
Satyam Surana, who is pursuing a law degree at the institute, has said that his campaign for the student union elections have been targeted by left-wing extremists who have tried to link him to India’s Hindu nationalist BJP.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Indian student who stole the limelight last year by picking up the Indian national flag from the road in London defying the attack on the Indian high commission by extremist elements, has alleged hate campaigns against him during the student union elections at the London School of Economics (LSE) this year which he is contesting.
He also said that those who targeted him are part of that group that can’t digest the success of India under prime minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and spread false and malicious propaganda.
Satyam Surana, who is pursuing a law degree at the prestigious institute, has claimed that 12 hours ahead of the voting, he was targeted with a ‘well-planned’ campaign. He was also said he was linked with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and dubbed as a ‘fascist’ and a call was given to boycott him and his electoral efforts.
Read: Pushed by my conscience, says Indian student who picked up Tricolour at Khalistan protest in London
#WATCH | An Indian Student at the London School of Economics, Satyam Surana who came to the limelight when he picked up the tricolour from the road, defying the attack at the Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom by extremist elements last year, now alleges hate campaigns… pic.twitter.com/aXsVC2PIWD
— ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2024
Surana hails from the western Indian city of Pune and has practised law at the Bombay High Court in Mumbai. His course at the LSE is concluding later this year.
He said that after he filed nomination for the post of general secretary in the elections earlier in March, posters bearing his name were being torn. He said the matter was raised with the authorities but even after the posters were replaced, some of them were defaced.
Read: Modi picks up India Tricolour lying on BRICS stage ahead of group photo; WATCH
“There were crosses on my face, it was written ‘anyone but Satyam’. I was cancelled out,” Satyam told news agency Asian News International.
“On March 17 afternoon, there were messages in all groups of LSE. Indian groups, law school groups. The messages claimed, ‘This Satyam Surana is a BJP supporter, he is a fascist person, an Islamophobe, transphobe’. The messages were so seditious and contentious of the Indian government and the current establishment,” he added.
Surana also alleged that the radical elements took screenshots of his posts on X in which he merely praised the BJP government in India and that they were used to call him a “fascist”.
The Indian student said that his manifesto for the election had no political points, but merely contained the genuine issues faced on the campus.
Even though he initially got overwhelming support, this hate campaign derailed his chances, the ANI report added.
“With my entire team, I went through the entire campus. We were reaching out across departments and explaining our policies. I had a very well-written and well-drafted manifesto, which was not at all political. It said how things need improvement at LSE, how there is a need for a grievance redressal portal, having subsidised food on campus. We were getting support and people were saying that they would vote for me,” Surana said.
“But, out of the three people, it was only me who was targeted randomly. When these messages started coming, my entire team was shocked, we were in a dilemma, and the entire moral conscience of the team was shattered,” he added.
He also recalled the incident at the Indian commission in October last year when he picked up the Indian Tricolour from the ground.
“Somewhere around early October, I was in the news because I picked up the national flag outside the Indian High Commission among the Khalistani protestors. I was blessed to receive media coverage. I was interviewed by national media channels.”
He said that he was targeted for calling Khalistanis as ‘terrorists’ in one of his posts.
“See, this is my country. I will always be an advocate for my country. How is Indian politics relevant to the student union elections in the UK? My views and endorsements of my government are entirely my opinion,” Surana told the news agency.
He also said that one of his photographs with Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of the state of Maharashtra and a BJP leader, which was taken when he was invited by the latter during his visit to India, was used by the extremist elements to prove that he is associated with the BJP.
Surana pointed out that since the whole smear campaign against him was targeting the ‘right-wing’, he believes that the campaign was planned by ‘left-wing’ groups.
“I was called a Neo-Nazi supporter, Right Wing, out of campus. See, when the message heading was circulated as the right wing out of campus, it is very clear that the campaign was dictated and planned by the left wing,” he said.
“The people of the international community are not aware of what is going on in India. Every international person is looking up to India and looking up to the current Prime Minister as a stalwart legendary politician. Our Prime Minister has the highest approval rating in the entire world, we have shown what we can do during Covid-19, and we are emerging as the third-largest economy. But, sadly these groups who can’t digest this fact are spreading not misinformation, but disinformation,” Surana added.
(With ANI inputs)
