HAU stir flags absence of student unions on campuses

The ongoing agitation at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (HAU) has opened up a debate over the need for elected student unions on campuses in the state. The stir, which escalated on the scholarship issue, has also sought to highlight a democratic void on campuses in the absence of student representation.

Bijender Sharma, who served as HAU Students’ Union president in 1994-95, said the situation could have been avoided had an elected students’ body been in place. “Imposing a cut on scholarships would have been unthinkable. We not only resisted such measures in the past, but also ensured paid internships and institutional accountability,” he said. He led a 43-day campus strike and later faced conduct probation and legal cases during his protests for job opportunities for graduates in the state.

Student union polls in Haryana have been defunct since 1996, when the then Chief Minister, Bansi Lal, imposed a blanket ban. Though student wings of political parties demanded the restoration of elections around five years ago, the state government has not given it a serious thought. The vacuum has grown deeper, leaving students without a structured platform to voice legitimate concerns.

Dr KS Khokhar, former Vice-Chancellor of HAU, said there could be a collegium model with class-wise representation for coordination between the administration and students. However, he admitted that without formal elections, students often fail to mobilise around genuine issues, leaving administrators unchecked.

A turning point came in 2006, when on the Supreme Court's directions, the Centre set up the Lyngdoh Committee, headed by former Chief Election Commissioner JM Lyngdoh, which laid down guidelines for holding student union elections. It recommended regular elections across all institutions, allowed temporary nomination systems only in exceptional cases, and called for a five-year transition to structured models—direct, indirect, or hybrid. However, the recommendations were never fully implemented in Haryana.

Even as Delhi University and Panjab University, Chandigarh, continue with student polls, states like Punjab and Rajasthan have discontinued elections. Nirmal Chaudhary, the last elected president of Rajasthan University in 2022, termed this gap a grave injustice, depriving students of participation in democratic processes.

Beyond administrative relevance, student politics also promotes inclusive and democratic engagement, says Dr Ramesh Punia, a former student leader at Kurukshetra University. The HAU agitation showed how students rejected attempts to communalise the movement, uniting across caste and regional lines. “The student union bridges the gap between the administration and the student body,” he said, adding that unresolved issues were often sidelined until they exploded into agitations.

With the number of universities, including private ones, increasing, there was need for a platform to deal with the issues of students. The lack of representation made it harder to address problems, he said.

“Elected student unions are not just about campus politics. They are a foundation for grooming democratic leadership. The absence of polls in Haryana has denied space for independent political voices, especially in a state where dynastic politics prevails,” said Congress youth leader Krishan Satrod. With political families dominating the space, student wings of major parties had become inactive or served as tools for promoting political heirs, he added.