Clamour for direct poll to SCA, threat of violence looms

Bhanu P Lohumi

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Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) has always been a hotbed of politics and a nursery of budding leaders, but elections to the Students Central Association (SCA) in the university and affiliated colleges play a catalytic role in giving rise to violence on campuses.

Direct elections to SCA were banned in 2014, following violent clashes, but the demand for direct elections has gained momentum following return of the BJP to power and the ABVP queering the pitch.

The ABVP and the SFI are firm in their demand to restore direct elections to SCA and have launched a sustained agitation for the past four years to press for the acceptance of their demand. The NSUI is also not averse to elections. Steps should be taken to check violence during the poll, but elections, which are a part of the democratic set-up, should be held, says HPU, NSUI president Vinu Mehta.

The SCA election in HPU and colleges has given rise to a large number of politicians and most of the leaders occupying high positions in the government and political parties today are products of student politics. To name a few, the present Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur, Union Minister JP Nadda, Education Minister Suresh Bhardwaj, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Anand Sharma, presidents of BJP and Congress, Satpal Singh Satti and Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu, and the lone CPM MLA, Rakesh Singha, who was directly elected president of SCA in 1979. 

The HPU has been a bastion of SFI. The overzealous attempts of student organisations to woo the students, especially the freshers, often led to violent clashes. 

The Himachal Pradesh University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Sikender Kumar, has constituted a high-level committee headed by Dean of Students Welfare (DSW), which would submit its report within a week after consulting the college principals and heads of departments. 

“I have taken the opinion of principals of various colleges during the sports meet held in the first week of August and also consulted the chairpersons on the issue; a high-level committee has been constituted and the report is awaited,” said the VC.

The University is under pressure to decide the issue at the earliest because the elections process has to be completed by the third week of August, according to the Lyngdoh Committee and under extraordinary circumstances, it can be stretched to the second week of September.  

The college principals had supported indirect elections in 2014 but this time they have left the decision to the government and HPU because even the leaders, who are advocating direct elections, are apprehensive whether the elections would be free of violence and academic peace would not be disturbed.

Chaudhary Waryam Singh Bains, a former employee leader said the contestants should shun the postal and pamphlet war.