Besides the Narendra Modi-Arvind Kejriwal showdown, the constituency of Varanasi saw another clash during this election. As a large number of students from Banaras Hindu University started campaigning for the BJP, they were countered by those from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, who descended on the holy town to seek support for secular forces.
While students involved in the ideological battle added colour to the electioneering in the North, there was hardly any such large-scale attempt visible in Tamil Nadu, where polling for the Lok Sabha elections was held on April 24.
The message that activism would spoil one’s career seems to be trickling down to those stepping into colleges.
Take the case of R. Mukunthan, a B.Com. aspirant. He says he has never given a thought to student politics. “My major concern is placements,” he points out, standing in the queue at a city college to buy an application form.
Ramya Vardhini, who is applying for B.A. Journalism at a women’s college, says she follows politics on newspapers but has no political opinion. “I want to concentrate on studying without distractions.”
According to Mohammed Ibrahim, principal of Presidency College, one of the few institutions that hold student body elections every year, activism on campus is seen as a “nuisance” factor that has to be discouraged. “In the last two decades, clashes between groups during college elections have brought a bad name to student unions. No parent today wants his child to be a student leader,” he says.
Another major factor that has stifled student politics is the preference of the employers for “disciplined” students. Most multi-national corporations, he points out, avoid students who were once activists. “They do not see this as an indication of leadership quality. Most of these companies bar union activities. So it’s natural they don’t want such students,” Mr. Ibrahim says.
Senior DMK leader Durai Murugan, a prominent student leader during the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1960s, says a larger cause that could bind students beyond party politics is missing in today’s context.
While students staged protests over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue in 2013, its magnitude was negligible, compared with the anti-Hindi agitation or the protest to promote the Tamils’ cause in 1983.
During his student days, he says, professors played a huge part in shaping such activities. Some of them even encouraged campaigning in classrooms during elections. “But even the very few students who want to participate in political activism come looking for positions today. Gone are the days when we were committed to ideology and ready to spend a lifetime propagating it.”
