Lucknow, Aug. 10 -- The All India Students' Association (AISA) observed its 36th Foundation Day at its office in Nishatganj, Lucknow, on Sunday with a discussion on "36 Years of the AISA Movement and Contemporary Challenges." The programme was addressed by Comrade Lal Bahadur Singh, founder president of AISA, and attended by students, youth and organisational activists. AISA was founded on August 9, 1990, on Kranti Diwas, in Allahabad (now Prayagraj) through the coming together of several Left student organisations from across the country. Addressing the gathering, Comrade Lal Bahadur Singh said the organisation was formed to provide a platform for a revolutionary and democratic student movement. He recalled AISA's early struggles against communal politics on campuses, including Kumaon University, Allahabad University and Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He also highlighted the organisation's growing presence in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) under the revolutionary red flag. He said that over the past 36 years, AISA has remained at the forefront of campaigns for student rights, democratic campuses, social justice and public education. He said the organisation had consistently opposed fee hikes, the commercialisation and privatisation of education, attacks on campus democracy and restrictions on student rights, while linking student issues with wider democratic and social struggles. Comrade Lal Bahadur Singh said AISA had always opposed treating education as a commodity and had demanded that education and employment be recognised as fundamental rights. Remembering Comrade Chandrashekhar, AISA's prominent leader and two-time JNUSU president who was killed in Siwan, Bihar, while campaigning for democratic politics and against the criminalisation of dissent, he said the organisation remained committed to carrying forward the revolutionary legacy of Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar. He added that AISA would continue its struggle for the revolutionary transformation of society. The discussion also focused on changes in higher education. Speakers said privatisation, fee hikes, seat cuts, shrinking employment opportunities and the commercialisation of education had disproportionately affected Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi, minority, women, queer and first-generation students....