Lucknow lessons in university reform

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.

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.

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