A cradle for political leaders
Jasmine Singh
Kanhaiya Kumar was like any other student leader who usually dot most Indian campuses looking for their 15 minutes under the sun. He got many more than he must have hoped for when an overzealous government slapped him with sedition charges for allegedly raising anti-national slogans on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus to mark the third anniversary of Afzal Guru’s hanging. From just another student leader, Kanhaiya, former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), suddenly became the most-talked about student leader of the country.
However, this was not the first time that a student leader had made his presence felt on the national political scene, young enthusiastic students had actively participated in the freedom struggle of India. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was a student when he first protested against the treatment meted out to the Indian students at the Presidency College, Calcutta, by the British. Yet another student, Chittaranjan Das, had mobilised thousands of youngsters during the Satyagraha movement with his rousing slogan, “Exams can wait but freedom cannot”.
Young voices
After Independence, political parties were quick to cash in on this young energy and mobilise this activism for their own benefit. Idealistic young student leaders raising their voice against evil social practices may have seemed as a threat to a political system where corruption had become the bedrock. It was but natural for political parties to try and influence or even capture student election scenario.
Their involvement in student politics have only increased over the years, in a way defeating the entire purpose of student elections. Does this call for a blanket ban on student election on the campuses? Or, is it a necessary evil in the democracy that we cannot do without?
The Lyngdoh Committee set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2006 came with the objective of reforming student union elections by keeping money and muscle power away from these polls. But this is not what seems to be happening these days, as the line between student politics and party politics has become blurred.
Most national political parties are known to patronise student unions, decide their agenda and provide them with not only aims and objectives but money, too, for their elections. Almost all major parties like the BJP and the Congress have their own youth wings with large membership across major universities. Even the newbie AAP, formally launched in 2012, has its student wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS).
Party politics
Kuljit Singh Nagra, a former president of the Panjab University Students Union (PUSU), Chandigarh, (1989-1995) admits to political interference in student elections. Nagra, an MLA from Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab, calls this interference ‘bad for the health’ of student politics’. “We didn’t run after political parties. In fact, they would be chasing us. There was no money or muscle power involved in student elections at that time.”
Yet another former student leader, Dalvir Singh Khangura, who was part of Students’ Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU), seconds Nagra. Khangura, the sitting MLA from Dhuri, Sangrur, sees a marked change in the student election scenario in universities. “Student elections are politically driven these days.”
Does this mean that we should discourage student activism? While some people believe that politics on the campus can distract students, others feel educational institutions are grounds for learning life skills.
Bhupali Magare, a research scholar at JNU and the president of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), says students are not isolated from society. “Like any other citizen, it is the responsibility of students to participate in nation building.” To Bhupali, students elections play an important role in the democracy. “It is a platform to talk about our ideologies. Institutions not only impart education, these prepare students to deal with the realities of life as well. It is, thus, important that students discuss and deliberate on issues, an essential activity in the democratic process.”
With the youth of the country standing up for their rights, voicing concerns over the political degradation of the country, our democratic set-up cannot ignore student unions and organisations, which do not want to their rights to be overtaken by party agendas.
“The only way the government can understand the youth of the country and formulate policies favourable for their growth is by recognising the effects of student politics,” asserts Tejwant Gill, a literary critic. “Organised student movements have always played an important role in every country. Students have always been the first ones to respond to any injustice. It was students in the US who raised their voice against the Vietnam War. In France and Germany in the 1960s, protests by students did away with decades-old conservative rule in these two countries. And how can one forget that the Naxalite movement in Punjab was heavily dependent on the student movement,” he adds.
While on one hand, the role of student movements, whether in the pre-Independence times or in the current scenario, cannot be dismissed, on the other the influence of political parties in academic institutions has grown manifold.
And that is a cause for concern as this influence has brought its own share of conflicts. Electoral process may be alright but young usually know how to settle scores only one way.
Power games
This has given rise to violent incidents across campuses. Many people attribute this to criminalisation of student politics. “What we see today is leader-based politics. Most student leaders have nothing to do with the issues of students; they are just hungry for power. Political parties patronise such leaders and exploit this hunger. As a result, we see the rise of muscle power. Fights within the student groups are common now, and this is what has led to the criminalisation of student elections,” says Nagra. “I never allowed any political interference during my time at PUSU, and I still hold that student politics should be independent of party politics.”
Even though many student leaders are trying their best to keep interference by various political parties out of student elections, this seems an inevitable happening. On a larger scale, student elections are also seen as the breeding ground for aspiring student leaders who look at politics as their ultimate goal.
Saket Bahuguna, national media convener of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), is full of praise for all such national-level political leaders who have risen from student politics. “These are the leaders who are not neta-putras and do not come from influential political families. They know about the ground realities. These are the leaders who have created a space for themselves in the national arena. Producing political leaders is also an important part of student politics but not the only one. Another task of student politics is to make them socially aware so that they can stand up for their rights, and also for the rights of others.”
From time to time, student politics on campuses has been questioned but the fact remains that without elected student bodies and leaders, students will have no platform to voice their concerns and the wrongs being done to them.
