Big Picture: PU ballot battle through the years

Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And, politics is the bow of idealism.

— American journalist Bill Moyers

The Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) elections reward its winners with a chance to amplify over 16,000 young voices. In the process, the polls also give leaders and parties with regional and national aspirations “bows” to release their desired “arrows”.

With decades-old groups to up-and-coming outfits jostling for space in the varsity’s increasingly crowded electoral landscape, the PUCSC polls have remained dynamic throughout their 48-year history.

First organised in 1977, the elections opened a pathway to the PU’s power corridors for students. Understandably, they quickly became one of the most awaited events of the campus calendar — drawing the attention of not only students, but also big players from regional and national politics looking to expand their base among the youth.

Aspiring politicians of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh gather and present their best ideas to woo young voters. Five decades into its existence, the varsity has given both right and left wing ideologies to bring about positive change. The rise of home-grown outfits has also reminded stakeholders that the polls are fought not for the sake of “rulers” but students.

The first direct elections were fought in 1977. The Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) took shape in the same year, while archrival Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) came together in 1985. Hence began their well-chronicled battle for dominance on campus.

Come 1990s, national outfits like the National Students Union of India, the student wing of the Congress party, began taking interest in the polls. NSUI contested the polls for the first time in 1997. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Students Organisation of India (SOI), the other big players with backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Shiromani Akali Dal, respectively, also joined the race in the intervening years.

ASAP, ASF, SFS, outfits that trace their origins to regional identities like HIMSU, HPSU, INSO and many others, the list of players has only grown since.

Through the evolving landscape, the varsity has remained perhaps the only institution of the region to have ensured that student voices are heard. Only twice — amid tensions in Punjab during the 1980s and 90s and the Covid-19 pandemic — have the elections been not been held.

The election ‘makeover’

In the five-decade run, reining in “rivalries” and “gang wars” has perhaps been the biggest challenge for the varsity. Once a hotbed for conflict, the varsity transformed into a more conducive political playground with the implementation of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. Headed by former chief election commissioner JM Lyngdoh, the panel in 2005 proposed guidelines that a year later received the Supreme Court’s stamp. They have been sacrosanct for holding elections at the varsity without any changes since 2012.

Local authorities are also to be credited for the positive change, which at times has come only through decisive decision-making. Stopping the Open House debates, which were often followed by violence, in 2010, empowering the police on campus and keeping a check on “troublemakers” have all been key to the varsity’s larger plan to streamline the process.

So much has changed that the elections today are completely disparate from when they first began. There was a time when the death of former Panjab University student leader Prabhjinder Singh, alias Dimpy Chandbhan, in 2006, could be traced back to a gang rivalry on campus. Chandbhan had earned notoriety after allegedly killing another student leader, Makhan Singh, at the varsity in 1985. Rivalries also led to the killings of Amritpal Bawa “Pency”, former president of the Panjab University Gandhi Group Students Union in 2015, and Jaswinder Singh Bhullar, alias Rocky, who was once associated with Dimpy. Lawrence Bishnoi, the most searched gangster as per online portals today, also treaded the path of student politics at DAV College, Sector 10, in 2010-11.

However, the varsity’s efforts to provide a more conductive environment has seen “gangsters” being replaced by able “leaders”. The likes of Malwinder Kang, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Kuljit Nagra, Dalvir Khangura, Virender Singh Dhillon, Ashwani Sekhri and many others have made in state and even national politics.

The voters too have evolved. A notable change came in 2016, when the None of the Above (NOTA) option was introduced. It empowered voters to express dissatisfaction. The vote share of NOTA has gone up with each passing year.

Women shatter the glass ceiling

As the number of parties contesting the polls grew, so did the interest in the polls. It was but obvious for women to jump onto the bandwagon and their participation, both as active voters to leaders, has grown over the years.

A significant moment arrived in 2018 when the varsity elected SFS’s representative Kanupriya as the first-ever female president. It was fitting that she defeated five male candidates en-route to victory. Kanupriya’s win truly opened the door to women’s entry into politics, so much so that the varsity is now mulling over the idea of reserving seats for women in elections.

Earlier, in 2014, SFS party had fielded a woman for the post, and two years later the NSUI became the first national party to declare a female presidential candidate. This year, three of the eight candidates for the post are women.