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How
Punjab
is losing the resource pool for politics?
Sach Kanwal
Singh
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Across the world, bright young minds experienced their first
serious engagement with society by cutting their teeth in
student politics. We can all recall scores of names who fought
for great causes because of the awareness that campus politics
induced. From Salvation Army to anti-Vietnam war protests to
seminars at Harvard about Op Bluestar, campuses throbbed. But
not in
Punjab. |
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 CHANDIGARH: In
any political system, the new blood enters politics through acts of
political sensitization. Democratic notions take root in colleges
and universities as younger generations learn about history and the
making of the world as we know it. Elections to students’ bodies
have been a major occasion in the lives of many when they were
exposed to various political strands and applied their minds to how
a society does and can function.
Under a well
thought out plan, students in Punjab have been deprived of such a
major learning experience as student bodies lie defunct and no
elections have been allowed for more than a quarter century.
In a country
where many of the senior leaders have come through the ranks by
first cutting their teeth in politics in the student leadership,
entire generations are growing up without the benefit of such a
hugely successful learning system.
Anyone remotely
aware of student politics in India will be aware of the role that
student elections play the JNU, Delhi in forming minds and ideas. No
one in Punjab is questioning why that opportunity is being denied to
our students.
Unfortunately,
the vice chancellors in Punjab are chosen through methods and
channels that make them automatically unfit to raise such issues,
and they do not. Not even when India’s Supreme Court directed that
as per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, elections to students’
bodies in universities is mandatory.
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*
Vice-Chancellor Dr M.M. Puri of Panjab University who in 1997
successfully wrote to the Governor for the revival of student
elections on the campus: “What exactly do we want to prove by
depriving Punjab’s
youth of democracy?”
* Dr Gurjit
Singh, Vice-Chancellor of National University of Law at Patiala:
“Elections are the symbol of democracy, and the students deserve it.
We need to have a spirit somewhat like what T.N. Seshan had done to
streamline the election process if we want to effectively revive it
amongst the youth of Punjab.”
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Ever since the
dark days of 1983, Punjab campuses have not seen election activity.
On paper, the
Punjab
government in 2006 directed all universities to hold elections on
campuses and affiliated colleges to comply with the SC orders. In
reality, the university administrators are only too happy that there
is no pressure from the rulers to enable elections as they see it a
challenge to their authority.
In over 300
colleges affiliated to Punjabi University, Guru Nanak Dev
University, Punjab Agricultural University, Punjab Technical
University and Baba Farid University University of Health Sciences
and Research, no elections have taken place.
Patiala’s
Punjabi University has been a more politically aware campus but even
there, increasingly depoliticized teachers and students pursue
courses like fashion designing and computers. A former Vice
Chancellor, S.S. Boparai, in fact, was a picture of blissful
ignorance about political argumentation when he opposed elections in
2006 saying it would create a law and order problem.
Significantly,
and perhaps ironically too, the support for student elections is
coming from a Congress MP, Lok Sabha member from Ludhiana Manish
Tewari. “I think the atmosphere in Punjab is now very cordial to
hold student elections and the youth are politically very alive and
deserve representation,” he was quoted as saying.
Firebrand
student leader of 1970s and senior Akali politician Prem Singh
Chandumajra says it is unfortunate that universities are not gearing
up to hold elections, mandatory by 2011. “Peace now prevails and it
is a good opportunity that our youth take up politics in the true
sense by participating in student elections in colleges,” he adds.
But Chandumajra
remains conveniently silent on the phenomena of Students
Organisation of India, a youth force created and developed by
Sukhbir Singh Badal that enjoys a dubious reputation in Punjab. The
Akalis have an option of SOI route to create a resource pool for
politics or the democratic student election route. The regime seems
to have cast its vote, and it is not making democracy any richer.
9
September 2009
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