The political ideology of a student may not allow him or her to reconcile to the compromises that many national political parties are forced to make, and perhaps this is the reason why a student leader with large number of supporters choose not to enter the national stage, said Roshan Kishore.
The former Students’ Federation of India member, who held a key position in the JNU unit, was expelled for publicly expressing his opinion against the Communist Party of India’s (Marxist) decision to support Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for the post of President in 2012.
“Since 1993, most JNUSU presidents have been from the SFI, but they have not done well once they graduated to work for the CPI(M). In fact, almost all of them have been expelled from the party for some reason or the other,” he said, adding that a student who wins elections in the university usually do so based on his ideals.
“Once you are the JNUSU president, it is not difficult to affiliate yourself with major national parties. Even if you were under their rival student wing in university, the parties usually welcome such students. But it is not a step that many are willing to take, even if it means better political opportunities,” he added.
A differing view was taken by Sucheta De of the All India Students’ Association, who won the post of president by an overwhelming margin after elections returned to the varsity after a four-year ban.
“Our affiliated party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) has always been strongly associated with movements and not just political power. This is reflected even when the student leaves the university. There are people from JNU who later on go to enter national politics from other student associations. However, the presence of the Left associations like the AISA has grown strong in JNU over the years, and perhaps this is why we seem to represent an overall picture of JNU students not entering the national scene.”
