The aim to mass produce party cadres to be “used” as significant additions to their support base at rallies has overtaken the zeal to nurture future leaders, thus, spelling the “death of student activism” at Delhi University, political observers feel.
According to a cross-section of political analysts whom The Hindu spoke to on the eve of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections, gone were the days when arguably successful political figures such as Mani Shankar Aiyar, Ajay Maken and Kapil Sibal of the Congress, apart from Arun Jaitley and Vijay Goel of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could be expected to shine and rise from the streets of DU.
This, they said, was due to the replacement of the already problematic “glamour quotient” by sheer “money power”. Despite the gradual progression of campus politics from being bipolar to its current multi-polarity in addition to the advent of, and promises based on, the “oxymoronic phrase which is alternative students’ politics”.
“Student politics has deteriorated everywhere in the country but it is not just the students who are to blame; political parties have much introspection to do,” said Dr. Sudha Pai, Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). “They (the students) are being led down the garden path, being corrupted by large political parties and simply don’t realise it till is too late,” she added. Ravi Ranjan, faculty at the Department of Political Science at the Zakir Husain Delhi College (ZHDC), cited the rampant violation of the poll code laid down by the Lyngdoh Committee by “all parties except the Left parties” indicated that “nurturing personal ambition, instead of future leaders”, underlined most efforts by larger parties such as the Congress, the (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fighting ego-driven battles as they threw (legal) caution to the wind.
“These large parties have maligned student activism and politics by providing a breeding ground for personal ambition intended at creating dedicated party cadre instead of leaders and the replacement of glamour by money,” Mr. Ranjan said. “Not just DUSU but even the large political parties that use campus to wage seemingly significant, number-driven political battles need to have orientation programs in place so that students can actually understand what student politics should be instead of participating in what it has been reduced to,” he added.
Asked whether the arrival of alternative student politics on campus through the AAP's CYSS was indeed a possibility this time around didn't elicit a positive response. Arguing that canvassing on behalf of students was “the last thing expected of a larger civil society-based political party” Dr. Pai said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's involvement in the Chatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti's (CYSS) campaign was “disappointing”.
Mr. Ranjan said that while there was always scope for the advent of an alternative in political life, whether the CYSS was “fit to carry the torch forward” was questionable given the fact that the AAP's student wing seemed to be “doing the same thing that the ABVP and NSUI have done for decades”.
Dr. Manisha Priyam, assistant professor of political science at Gargi College, however, said that the CYSS, through its insistence on issue-based politics, could actually hold the key to the future of on-campus politics.
“It seems to have replaced the age-old Jat-Gurjar rivalry between the older students' parties with issues that matter to students,” she said.
On his part, Chief Election Officer for DUSU, DS Rawat said DU authorities had issued circulars to the candidates of all parties to conduct campaigning as per Lyngdoh Committee recommendations.
“Despite that we have received a number of complaints about student organisations and their candidates indulging in the use of money and muscle power. We have already taken note of the complaint and sought an opinion from our legal cell in this regard,” he added.
