When the recent
protest by various organizations ended, both sides claimed themselves to be
victorious. Well, we don’t know who won the complete battle but one thing is
sure that democratic space of students in PU campus was on the losing
side. In the whole scenario the university authorities made complete
mockery of student politics. PU in recent days appeared more like a police camp
than an educational institute. The election period this time was unusually
quiet in PU, until the time of result on the day of elections came about. For
first time the results were surrounded by the allegations of rigging. On one
hand the NSUI supporters were pressing for declaration of results while on the
other hand many other parties (PUSU+SOPU+SOI+ABVP +SFI+INSO+HSA) were
protesting in front of the VC office demanding the cancellation of nomination
of NSUI presidential candidate. The drama in its culmination made it abundantly
clear that the authorities were biased in favour of NSUI and also that the
other organizations instead of struggling for student democracy reduced the
whole issue to mere power struggle. The cat fight that followed the results
became the headline for local dailies.
A dilemma for all students came up: which side
to take. If you support the protesting organizations then you will ultimately
support the most undemocratic Lyngdoh norms (whose primary aim is privatization
and commercialization of education and to curb the democratic space in
educational campuses so as to reduce any progressive student movement) as the
main issue of protest was for the implementation of Lyngdoh norms(Ironically,
the very same organizations were earlier opposing the Lyngdoh norms but now to
seek gains from it they are supporting it) and if you oppose the protest then ultimately
you will be supporting the dictatorial attitude of authorities whose partisan
attitude (for NSUI under pressure from ruling Congress party) is clear.
We must see the issue in a broader sense
that has been reduced to just a struggle for power. On the contrary progressive student politics lies in
recognizing it
as a democratic platform on which the students can understand the concrete
realities of society and organise themselves to solve the problems existing in
it. It is the duty of progressive students and their organisations to raise
voice against any unjust practice in the society and any policy framed by
ruling class that is against the interest of the masses. What we need to emphasize here is the shrinking
democratic space of students and student politics which, in this whole drama,
lost its significance. The excessive use of police force was
seen during recent days, further exposing the authorities, cases of rigging and
bogus voting surfaced. The authorities have left no stone unturned in
vulgarizing the democratic process of student elections and defaming the
student politics. This whole drama can’t be seen as isolated from the upcoming
Lok Sabha elections which clearly influenced all these activities. This year in PU campus elections we saw
the direct entry of anti-people mainstream political parties (under various
banners). Even earlier these parties were supporting the organizations in PU
from behind the curtain but keeping in view the upcoming Lok Sabha elections
they have directly come to the fray and indeed very hard effort was put into
this time.
The use of police force has become a norm in the
university, whenever students protest for their demands, it’s not VC or DSW (the
responsible authorities) that respond but police. The scene has become so
common that now presence of police is accepted as a common practice. In the
recently held elections about a force of 900 policemen were present in the
campus. To further terrorize the students a flag march was done in the campus
prior to the Election Day. Under the pretext of providing security the argument for Police
State is justified. The character of police is clear to most of us. It is the
same police that has assaulted the masses protesting for their basic demands, be it brutal crackdown on PU students protesting against the rise in
mess diet prices or registering a FIR against the students protesting against
the Delhi Gang Rape in front of Governor house, beating up of Maruti
Suzuki workers protesting for their right to form union in Manesar, even the
visually impaired persons protesting in Chandigarh were not spared by police.
The economic condition of our country is such that protests are daily held by
suffering masses so in such a scenario these incidents of police resorting to
crudest forms of violence can’t be negated. Universities are responsible for a
progressive change in the society but today when public education system is
ripped apart and higher education is rapidly privatized by govt. for the
profits of corporate, then a bigger responsibility is on the shoulders of the
students.
The attitude of PU
administration regarding the presence of police is most notorious. In case of
any genuine protest in PU, section 144 is imposed near the VC office,
undermining the democratic rights of students. What is more severe is that many
a times hostel raids are conducted by police which is even against rules as
none of the authorities is alongside them. The case is not same everywhere, in
campuses like JNU, police think twice before entering. The open house, one of
most democratic process in campus elections was banned due to Lyngdoh norms
undermining campus democracy (the whole set of these norms is full of such
suggestions). Similarly under the name of security of girls, they are treated
like prisoners, here also no efforts are made for gender equality. Every activity
of students is first scrutinized by the authorities and even small matters like
displaying notice, needs the permission from authorities. The whole ‘permission’ phenomenon symbolize as
if the university is not an institution for social welfare where students can
freely express their ideas but rather a private property of administration. The students are being confined
to classrooms making their whole schedule busy, be it through compulsory
attendance criteria or semester system and through unreasonable justifications
asking students to keep away from politics.
Here we, the students, need
to identify the whole ruling class politics of maintaining the status-quo and
recognizing the progressive nature of student politics, come forward and resist
every effort to curb the student democracy. We appeal the students and all
student organizations to unitely stand in direct opposition to undemocratic Lyngdoh norms
and struggle for banning entry of police in educational campuses. We should
work for building a healthy democratic environment in the campus where students
can develop themselves and their understanding of concrete social realities in
order to change it.