The vice-chancellor of Lucknow University, Ram Prakash Singh, has shown rare courage in taking the bull of campus hooliganism by the horns. This university, like most campuses, has been taken over by criminals in the garb of students, patronised by opportunist national political parties.These so-called student leaders, who are neither students nor leaders, hope to catch the attention of one of the parties, so that they may use campus politics as a stepping stone to state or national-level politics. If a student gets elected to one of the three important posts of any student union of a major university, sooner or later he or she is ensured of a ticket to assembly or parliamentary elections from one of the major political parties.As a Banaras Hindu University student with a rosy picture of politics as an instrument of social change, I had run for the post of representative of the university’s Institute of Technology in 1985. It was a shocking experience: the candidates for the posts of president, vice-president and general-secretary asked me to align with them on the basis of a common caste, and they offered me access to any movie in town — and also liquor, if needed, for students who could pledge their votes. Having won the election, I attended the first few meetings of the union. They left me disillusioned for life about Indian electoral politics.Students who won or ran for the top three posts did very well in their subsequent political careers. Rajesh Mishra, who was vice-president of the union, is the Congress MP from Varanasi now; O.P. Singh, who was general secretary, became a minister in the last BJP government in UP. Manoj Sinha, a former president of the union, became the BJP MP from Ghazipur, and Satya Prakash Sonkar, who ran for a post in the 1985 university election but did not win, became an MLA later.For many so-called student leaders, it may be a good thing to remain active in student politics till such time as they win an important student election or become notorious enough not to be ignored by mainstream political parties. But in general, universities suffer because of them. I can perfectly understand the predicament of Vice-chancellor Professor R.P. Singh, as I have had to face a similar sort of hooliganism. The occasion was a programme organised in the honour of 40 visiting Pakistani guests in August 2005 at the prestigious Malviya Bhavan of Lucknow University. Since the programme was being held at Lucknow University, we also decided to invite the then students union president, Rajpal Kashyap, to share the dais as a representative of the student community.But other student leaders present there wanted to share the dais, too, and were in no mood to realise the seriousness of the programme. We put our foot down. A melee followed, with each of these ‘leaders’ appearing more threatening than the other. Some of them said abusive things about the organisers, not even sparing the women. This was embarrassing in the presence of our Pakistani guests, so we decided to boycott the snacks organised by the union. The Pakistanis joined us in walking out. Frankly, I think Lucknow University needs an overhaul. It must be rid of all its goonda elements. But I never thought this was possible. When R.P. Singh took over as vice-chancellor and spoke of making an IIT out of Lucknow University, we thought he would soon get disillusioned. But he has demonstrated the guts and can take on not only the university lumpens but also state-level politicians. While Mulayam Singh Yadav shamelessly patronises goonda elements on campus and other political parties support him or keep silent on the issue, R.P. Singh has stuck to his guns. He needs all our support to take on Mulayam Singh Yadav and his brand of politicians. He deserves kudos for not having buckled under the political pressure to isolate him. Without caring about the danger that he has invited to his personal security, he has shown the determination to raise Lucknow University out of the hopeless mess to which it had degenerated. If political parties think they can ride roughshod over the vice-chancellor by supporting the kind of rowdyism that has become the hallmark of Indian politics, they are mistaken. People are tolerant of such politics because they have no option. As soon as they’ll have a healthier alternative they’ll reject the murkier elements. The writer is a winner of the 2002 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership
