'Age no bar for DUSU Polls' reports the Hindustan Times
The presidential candidates of ABVP and NSUI for Delhi University Students Union - Gargi Lakhanpal and Amrita Dhawan - are doing their graduation for the second time. Amrita, who is a commerce graduate from Bharti college, is pursuing an undergraduate course in History from the same college...
Gargi, on the other hand, first completed her Bachelor's degree in History from Lakshmi Bai college and then went on to join Aurobindo College last year for contesting the DUSU joint secretary's post, but did not appear for her exams. This year she has enrolled for BA with Aditi college saying it is more 'professionally oriented'.
Yeah, especially when the 'profession' she has in mind is a career in politics. Apaprently she tried to join a post-graduate course, but failed and hence settled for undergrad.
Two questions come to mind:
a) Why are such applicants admitted? Obviously under union pressure
b) Can we call such people 'students' at all?
I mean the primary goal of ordinary students is to study. Which is obviously the last thing on the minds of these people. Naturally they are disconnected from the real concerns and issues important to genuine students.
It's a vicious cycle. Genuine students keep away from politics. So these fake students step in to fill the vaccum. Seeing the kind of 'leadership' which exists, even the few genuine students who may contemplate standing for elections are scared away. And the rot continues.
As the HT article notes, most 'student leaders' are in their early 30s! NSUI, has therefore set an 'upper age limit of 27. But NSUI office bearers are all over 30 or nearing it. ABVP doesn't even pretend to have an age limit. The state gen. secy Nakul Bhardwaj told HT: "You can be a student at 40 too."
This ridiculous annual exercise - as well as the tragic muder of a professor n Ujjain by 'student' leaders - prompted me to write this column for sify.com.
It's called 'Students, politics and career paths'.
On an unrelated note: The HT website is not very helpful. I can't provide a link to the article quoted above because I can't find it - either on google or HT online. I trawled through their epaper archive but while I could view the article there I could not copy-paste it (that 'function is disabled') or link to it.
It would have been faster to type in the relevant paras - which is what I finally did. Web edition ka kya fayda?
I dont see how this is different from the normal politics. Normal people dont enter politics so anti socials enter politics and hijack the system to their advantage and for special interest groups which threaten morchas and riots everytime some proposal is mooted to bring them under control.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is happening not only here, but all over the world...espescially france where any proposal to cut benefits results in riots, any proposal to discipline people results in riots.
i recall the same DUSU women 'leader' coming on CNN recently to criticize teachers.She said ' education has been commercialized' ( i dont why thats sucha bad thing, if 'quality' is being maintained, as one of the reasons why techer-student relationship is becoming degraded. She obviously failed to mentioned that she had taken 'admission' again in a bid to improve this relationship singlehandedly : )
ReplyDeleteI have a toon on my Blog: www.worldofindia.blogspot.com on the Ujjain episode.Take a look, if u get the time.
Hi!! ALL
ReplyDeleteDemocracy works in strange ways and the recent incidents & media reports are a proof to that. What do u expect? One reaches institutes of higher education after such intense competetion that the whole idea of college/university life is distorted. Once you are in a good institute you are just expected 2 clear all the exams & then get the hell out before system sucks you down the dirty world of politics and reservations. We are preconditioned to look the other way when a wrong or not-so-right decision is taken or (better) forced upon us. If one keeps a straight face its well & good, but some student who is obviously NOT A STUDENT will try to fill the void of raised voices and frayed tempers. That one raised voice is usually backed by crony politicians. I have seen it first-hand. The police sees the other way while the STUDENT LEADERS raise hell about an issue or non-issue. Today's HT had an interesting take on the situation & termed it as "System Sucks Syndrome".... If u are given a rusted nail hell sure u can't build your bridge.. bu hope lives on "Koi Desh Perfect Nahi Hota, Use perfect bnana Padhta Hai" RdB
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ReplyDeleteThat was a nice article on Sify. I think the Mumbai model of banning all unions in colleges makes more sense than allowing unionism in the name of democracy. It is a very well known fact that student unions are criminal unions. If student politics should be allowed in the name of democracy then why not allow the citizens of India to use their own prudence in usage of drugs, prostitution or for that matter speeding on roads - make everything legal! Some things do need control, and should not be allowed to take refuge in the name of democracy.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that intelligent educated people not only keep away from standing for elections BUT also don't bother to vote many a time.
ReplyDeleteOur country would not be in such a sad state of affairs but for these educated fools
Banning student politics is not the solution here. Students do need some body to fall back on in case of disputes with the management. Otherwise with the way colleges are coming up everyday you would see stunning examples of management high handedness.
ReplyDeleteLet me give you one example, do you know in some engineering colleges in Chennai (satyabama I guess), boys are not allowed to speak to girls, they are fined if found in such "compromising position". Apparently this is management way of washing hands off any scandals that may happen. effective, but against basic freedom. Then there are other engineering colleges that fine you if you don't bring a pencil, or if your pencil is not sharp enough.
These students were not able to do anything against such fatwas because they didn't have any collective voice.
Maybe we should not ban student politics altogether but regulate it in a way. We can have certain criteria for students who want to be on campus office holders. Something like having a minimum attendance, minimum academic performance (like... shouldn’t have more than couple of arrears) and something like maximum term where a person is allowed to be office holder for certain number of terms, no more.
I think these simple suggestions could be effective in cleansing our student politics. If only they could be implemented.
There is no way "student unions" of today will ever allow this.
This is an issue that definitely needs to be raised and taken up on a larger level.
ReplyDeleteIndia needs better politicians and for that we need people at college level to be introduced to politics. But the system currently in place is defective because as soon as a student joins politics, he conveniently forgets the fact of his being astudent and sets his eye on a seat in the assembly -state or national. He or she tries everything to stay in the limelight and if that means creating nuisance then create nuisance they will.
Moreover, what you have quoted about the delhi university is true about most other universities. Students go from one course to another and another and yet another to just stay in the institute to be eligble for the elections.
The purppse of having student unions is to give the young ones a taste of democracy and true independence.But the state in which the student unions of India are today is deplorable and if it does not cure itself of the various maladies, it is better off dead.
All we can do is stop calling them students who are passionate about getting into politics - these people are mere politicians who find 'academic' ways of getting into politics n hence, end up dirtying not only their acads but also the other fellow students there...
ReplyDeletewell.. corruption like cancer is already in every part of India... unless we stop the benefits attached to the posts we cant quite stop these people...
ReplyDeleteby the way...another good thing about working for oneself : We like the work we do and so things are always fun.. finding interesting people to work..yeah thts quite difficult.... coz they are all working for themselves..
the sorry state of student politics in our country is something we have to be shameful of.. With a handful of iit's n iim's the "second rate " universitites mushroom up everywhere and a degree is easily procureable.. We see a vocational course as sign of failure but degree is at an esteemed high..
ReplyDeleteWe need more of lok paritranas.. Lets hope(thats the only thing i can do) future holds good..
Hello
ReplyDeleteI agree with U
The idea behind student polictics is actually good , these are the places from where u hone ur leadership , administrative n 'political'skills and enter the world of politics.
ReplyDeleteBut in reality none of this seems to be happening , most of the student and youth wing leaders in their mid 40s.
In Kerala , student politics is practised in the worst possible form with violent clashes leading to frequent disruption of studies , not just in Arts/Science colleges but also in Engineering colleges.
Strikes were very common in even prestigious Engineering colleges for every minor issue.
I dont see any leaders getting formed or anything postive arising out of all this , the only leaders who use this as a platform for career in politics are those whose parents are into politics. Others end up nowhere.
Its time we put an end to this/ regulate student politics. My suggestion wud be that have elections but dont allow political parties inside campus.
@garcia
ReplyDeleteWe certainly don't need any more lok paritrans. Check out the link below and you'll know why.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/18/stories/2006051819940300.htm
For all those who are not aware, lok paritran was a party launched by a few iit alumni amidst lots of hype and hoopla, with all kinds of utopian agenda. No wonder it collapsed at the first opportunity. Check out the allegations being made, don't think its any different from any other party we've seen.
@anush
the stakes are too high, you'll never be able to ensure that political parties stay away from all these elections. It may be direct support as it is today, or it may be moral support or something that sort (which means a whole lot more).
Sadly enough , the good ones who are candidates in student elections, and genuinely want to work for better good of everyone, lose the elections.
ReplyDeleteI recall a senior guy in my engg college, in Gujarat, who lived in the same hostel as mine. From a rich family, and a great person to know. Why he lost - he is not a localite, he is a hostelite. So, not much support, in the college dominated by locals.
The murder of Prof. H.S. Sabbarwal is reminiscent of the fact that student politics in India is all but student. One of the biggest problems today is that there is no upper age limit of contesting student elections.
ReplyDeleteI was appalled by the professor’s murder just as anyone might have been. I have seen the ugly side of student politics and have my own suggestions that I blogged upon when the murder took place.
The country must do something to stop the rot at once before it is too late.
this is what wrong with our perspective towards student politics. it is no longer the platform for students to ventilate their grievances, in fact participation in politics is now viewed as an alternate career objects. that's why some people are not ready to give up their studentship and become a responsible citizen. they try to remain student leader all their life. wonder they dont get tired of studying?????
ReplyDelete