Musab Qazi
musab.qazi@htlive.com
Campus politics set to
return after 2 decades
After being banned in
state in 1994 following incidents of violence, students elections will now
return with new rules
MUMBAI: After 24 years,
campus elections will return to colleges in the state. With the Maharashtra
Public Universities Act 2016 progressively coming into effect, student
elections can now be held in universities across the state. On one hand, this
means students can actively participate in how these institutions of higher
learning are run, by weighing in on issues like fee hikes. It also means a more
active presence of political parties on campus.
While universities in
Delhi, Kerala and West Bengal are known for being hotbeds of political
activism, campus politics in Mumbai has been a low-key affair historically,
barring the phase in the late 1980s that saw spiralling violence between
student unions, which led to campus elections being banned in the state.
“In Mumbai, students are
more career-oriented. Even those who participate in elections are motivated
more by the recognition they get among their peers. They take pride in heading
cultural and other activities ,” said Sanjay Vairal, a former senate member of
the University of Mumbai’s student council who has remained active in campus
politics for the past 30 years.
The late 1980s saw
incidents of kidnapping and other criminal activity on campuses across the
state, culminating in the brutal murder of Owen D’Souza in October 1989. The
last student elections were held in 1993. Indirect elections – in which
students elected class representatives who went on to elect chairpersons and
other functionaries – continued till 1993, after which elections in state
universities were banned in 1994. For the intervening 24 years, student
representatives were chosen on the basis of their academic record and nominated
for positions by college and university authorities. The only elections that
were allowed were internal college polls and those to appoint presidents and
secretaries of student councils.
From this year, students
may once again be involved in university affairs. “It’s a very good move. For
more than two decades, the students were deprived of elections. They will now
have a stronger voice in the university senate,” said Dharmesh Vyas, a former
state general secretary of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and
ex-chairman of University of Mumbai’s student council. Remembering his years as
a student, Vyas said, “Whenever there was a proposal for fee hike, we were on
the streets. The vice-chancellor would give weightage to student organisations.
There was unity amongst the student community.”The campus has long been the
training ground for future politicians. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Vinod Tawde,
Congress’s late Gurudas Kamat, Nationalist Congress Party’s Jitendra Avhad and Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena’s Raj Thackeray are just a few examples of politicians whose
careers began as student leaders.
“The student leaders
entered these organisations for better political prospects in the future,” said
Harshad Bhosale, an associate professor at Kirti College who has done his
research on student movements and politics in Maharashtra.Although elections
weren’t allowed and internal polls were a subdued affair, these student unions
with their varied political affiliations remained influential on campus.
“The student groups would
pressurise college administrations to nominate the students of their choice
[for councils and administrative positions],” said Dinesh Panjwani, principal
of RD National College in Bandra.
Bhosale said the strength
of student organisations is tied to the strength of the parent political party.
The prominent players are the Congress-backed NSUI and BJP’s student wing,
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). “If a particular political party is
in power, the morale of its student wing is boosted and it tends to become more
active. With the strategic support of their parent body, they tend to become
more dominant,” said Bhosale.
In the 1970s, the student
wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Students’ Federation of India
(SFI), was influential in universities in Mumbai, Pune and Marathwada. “They
would regularly contest elections and stage agitations. But, as the peasants’
and workers’ movements started weakening in Mumbai, the political fortunes of
SFI also started dwindling,” said Bhosale.
The 1980s saw the rise of
Shiv Sena’s Bhartiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS), headed by Raj Thackeray.
“Between 1990 and 2000,
BVS was very active,” said Bhosale. When Thackeray started his own political
party in 2006, his MNS also launched its student wing, Maharashtra Navnirman
Vidyarthi Sena (MNVS).
“Political parties give
much weightage to student politics. The dominance of their student wing in
college bodies is a great way to send a message that the hold sway over the
youth vote,” said Vairal.
Opinion is divided on
whether the ban has had any real impact. “Instead of parties recruiting real
leaders, dynastic politics got a push,” Bhosale said, but Panjwani doesn’t
agree.
“Around 50% leaders in
political parties were educated in the last 20 years. We can’t argue that they
are inferior to their seniors,” said Panjwani. With elections returning to
campuses on the eve of general elections, politics will be in the spotlight in
universities.
Source :
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspxMusab Qazi
musab.qazi@htlive.com
