The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — the students’ front of the Rashtriya Swayam-sevak Sangh (RSS) — often makes news over kerfuffle with its ideological adversaries on prestigious campuses or when its leaders are embroiled in controversies. Recently, Ankiv Baisoya, the newly elected president of the Delhi University Students Union, has been accused of submitting fake marks sheet by the Congress-aligned National Students Union of India — a charge rejected by the ABVP leader.
That’s not how the RSS and the ABVP wanted the 70-year-old organisation to be depicted in popular consciousness. The ABVP is the first front the RSS set