Former Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union (JNUSU) president and national council member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) Kanhaiya Kumar exhorted students to fight against attempts to depoliticise campuses across the country.
Inaugurating the 44th State conference of the All India Students Federation (AISF) here on Friday, he said they had to ensure that elections were happening on all the campuses.
“The situation of the campuses is worrying. They are being depoliticised. If you are depoliticised as a student, there will not be any critical understanding in you, and you will end up being a slave. There are only few campuses on which elections are taking place. On most campuses in the country, the students are not being provided the basic democratic right to elect. This regime does not respect the basic ethos of democracy. Wherever elections are taking place, the Lyngdoh committee recommendations that cut off the power and collective energy of the students, has become a problem. So, we have to ensure that elections are taking place, and also have to fight against the Lyngdoh committee recommendations,” he said.
“Continuous attempts are being made by the ruling party to malign the student movement and its leaders. The reason for this is that we have asked questions about fellowships, hostels, and syllabus. For this, they have branded us anti-nationals. If you are talking about education for all and then calling us anti-national, we reject your idea of the nation. We follow the idea of the nation as laid out by our Constitution,” Mr. Kumar said.
‘Ask questions’
He said that questions had to be asked to the government, even if it were ruled by those with whom the students were having ‘friendly relations’.
“Our responsibility is to ask questions to the government. Some of my seniors may not like my saying this. Our real strength is in whether we can question our own government or not,” he said.
