Manoj's World

Buds Of Venom

Clean student politics is possible—if politicians are kept out

ANURADHA RAMAN

August 26, 2006, will go down in Ujjain's history as its day of shame.

It was on this day that Professor H.S. Sabharwal was beaten to death allegedly by ABVP activists and his own students outside the gates of the Madhav postgraduate college.

The professor's fault: as the seniormost member of the faculty he had volunteered to announce the cancellation of student body elections because the authorities anticipated trouble on campus. That triggered the violence. The video footage of the comatose teacher gasping for breath shocked the nation—in part, because Sabharwal's killing went against the very grain of the guru-shishya parampara that the ABVP, and its parent party, the BJP, often swear by. What happened at Ujjain was the ugliest manifestation of campus politics in India. Ten acrimonious days after the event, on Teacher's Day, Ujjain was still recovering from the shock.

Within Madhya Pradesh the issue became politicised, with the Opposition and the Sabharwal family accusing the state government of shielding the guilty.

The Ujjain incident has reignited the debate on campus politics. Can it be practised in a peaceful and democratic manner? This was one of the key questions addressed by the six-member committee set up in January 2006 under the chairmanship of former election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh which examined student politics. While the committee's report, submitted to the Supreme Court last month, is highly critical of campus politics, it has also identified those universities where elections are violence-free.

Institutions like the Pune University, Hyderabad University, Jadavpur University and Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are notable exceptions to the goondaism of campus politics, says the committee. Vice-chancellors of the relatively trouble-free campuses shared with Outlook their roadmap for conducting peaceful polls.

In Pune University, elections are held every year. A hundred students are elected to the senate with minimum disruption to the academic routine. The university has 4,40,000 students. And yet there is no violence as political parties are kept out of elections. Points out vice-chancellor Narendra Jadhav: "Students make it to the senate as individuals and not as affiliates of political parties."

According to him, this and the fact that Pune University has a tradition of excellence has helped. Jadhav points to two other factors that hold the key to peace: quality education and good governance. This, he says, makes students take pride in their institution. Also the earn-while-you-learn scheme that it offers to students keeps them occupied—some work in the library or assist on research projects. Students are busy and have little time for politicking. Says Jadhav: "Students in Pune University look at the campus as a place that gives them returns even as they complete their studies. We don't give them reasons to agitate."

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who was on the Lyngdoh Committee, echoes this view, saying politics on the campus is linked to the state of education. "The quality of education determines student politics. Very often, teaching does not command respect in some universities. It is not a ticket to anything whereas politics is seen as key to a lucrative future," he says.

In the heart of Delhi, JNU with its extremely political profile—student wings of major political parties have a presence there—would seem to be susceptible to poll violence. But it is not—even though elections are hard-fought and campaigning hectic. President of the student union, Mona Das, says the progressive culture of the campus ensures that matters don't get out of hand.

"What the student wing of the BJP or the Congress does elsewhere will not be acceptable to JNU students because they realise politics needs to have higher goals, and students have to be far more accountable to the society," she says.

According to B.B. Bhattacharya, vice-chancellor, JNU, the involvement of students in almost all the activities of the university goes a long way in keeping peace, especially during elections. "Despite the affiliations of students with national parties, most of the meetings on the campus during elections go off peacefully. This is largely because of the 30-year-old history of students conducting elections. The university even has an election commission whose members are students and are elected by the students. It functions very much like the Election Commission of India," says Bhattacharya. The students, he adds, also draw up a report card on the outgoing union's performance. So there is a fair degree of accountability involved.

But Bhattacharya adds, JNU is a small campus and admits only 4,000 students every year and that too mostly at the postgraduate level. Obviously, the smaller the size of the institution the easier it is to manage. Says Mehta: "In large universities, elections cost more and the stakes are probably higher, which naturally leads to the involvement of political parties." Rajendra Prasad, JNU's rector, says the administration gives a token fee of Rs 30,000 for conducting elections and posters and other election-related material are hand-made in the campus itself.

Money, it appears, has little role to play in the elections in Jadavpur University, Calcutta. According to its registrar Rajat Bandyopadhyay, the administration gives a small amount to the students to conduct elections and makes provision for two or three vehicles required for campaigning. Interestingly, the election committee that is set up to conduct elections comprises not only student representatives but also teachers nominated by the vice-chancellor of the university. The returning officer is usually the Dean of Students appointed by the vice-chancellor. "For every 50 students, one representative makes it to the college union," says Bandyopadhyay. And quite unlike JNU where party affiliations are not frowned upon, Jadavpur makes no allowance for student wings of political parties. "Students contest here independent of their party ideologies. They cannot identify themselves with student wings of political parties," says Bandyopdhyay.

Classes are not suspended during elections. Students have to make time to cast their votes. No one has any objections to this. According to Bandyopadhyay, it is the attitude of the administration and the students that makes all the difference. Also, institutions must have well-established rules for conducting elections.

But can rules root out politics? No. But they do ensure student politics is not marred by violence. Points out Amit Chakravarti, general secretary of the Jadavpur University student's union: "Politics at our level is a form of our voice against the administration's wrongdoings and other issues of national and international importance and it is during elections that we give a voice to our demands. That's why the crisis in Lebanon, or the rehabilitation of oustees of the Sardar Sarovar project or Bush's stance on Iraq is often interwoven with the students' position on fee hikes." But, he adds, such issues are discussed in a democratic manner and does not degenerate into use of muscle power.

In Hyderabad University, there is a written code which says that students will not spend more than Rs 500 on campaign posters."There is also a limitation on the number of posters that are to be put up for the campaign and it is the students who decide by vote on who gets a seat in the 12-member election commission which then gets into the process of announcing the dates," says dean, student welfare, Uma Maheshwar Rao. Again, Hyderabad University is small compared to, say, Delhi University where campaigning is currently at its peak. Last time round, a little over Rs 1 crore was spent in Delhi, with major political parties like the Congress and BJP actively showing interest in the performance of their student affiliate bodies—the NSUI and ABVP. "I am surprised at the level of interest shown by the media and political parties in student elections to Delhi University," says Rao. "Why should the two be linked at all?" she asks.

It is for this reason that the Lyngdoh committee has gone about providing a template for the conduct of elections in colleges. Its position on elections is articulated by one member: "There is no question of banning elections in colleges. It is the students' right to have their representatives to air their views and have an elected body that is accountable to them. There are suggestions, however, on the best possible methods that can be adopted." Keeping political parties out or encouraging healthy political debates and having a clear framework for conducting elections seems to be the solution as Hyderabad, Jadavpur and Pune universities have shown.