student politics

Students & Politics

India is the world’s largest democracy . Being a democracy all her citizens above age of eighteen have the privilege to elect our representatives who will represent us ,our views , our interests and raise issues concerning our wellbeing in the legislative assemblies. This system has been carried in the colleges too and almost all political parties have their student wings. Student politics act as breeding ground for future leaders of our country. For any country to progress she should have dynamic and innovative leaders who have the ability to satisfy and manage
diverse and often conflicting demands of co-allition politics and student politics prepare these youth leaders of our country for this mammoth task.
Many national leaders like NCP’s Tariq Anwar , BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad and CONGRESS’ Manoj Tiwari started their political journey as these student leaders. A disciplined student politics concentrates on genuine student issues like fee hike, protesting against bureaucratic attitude of authorities, having a good laboratory, a good library etc. These student leaders are supposed to be the real guardians of students’ rights.
In short these leaders are expected to be honest ,sincere and hard-working individuals who are expected to take up all issues which concerns the interest of students and find a solution for them with the help of administration of their respective colleges and universities. These leaders are expected to become the vanguard of fellow students who elect them as their representatives but reality is agonizingly different .

These so called leaders are influenced by the money and support received from local leaders and due to this they also have develop vested and political interest which surmounts their commitment and loyalty towards the real issues of student interest which they have been elected to raise. Furthermore, these student leaders do not know anything about ongoing struggles related to different socioeconomic issues and debatable issues in national and international politics etc.All these people get handy and ready made materials from their political high commands and speak according to what they are told without using their intellect . If these leaders are questioned about issues of Iraq,or suicide of farmers they cannot utter a single word.
As far as just demands of students are concerned these are often not fulfilled by these student leaders at both college and university level because these students are related to political parties which are directly or indirectly supporting issues like fees hike, bureaucratic attitude of authorities ,corruption of funds etc .
In the present scenario student elections have simply become a show of money and power for all the political parties involved .The real issues of students can never really be addressed and are often put on the back burner. Genuine issues and honest leaders are often insulted and overshadowed by power of money and hogwash politics of leaders political parties.

New destructive face of student politics includes everything be it threats, violence or even cold blooded murders as it happened in the case of Ujjain’s Madhav College where Professor Harbhajan Singh Saberwal was beaten to death last year following a skirmish with the activists of ABVP last year. After this incident a committee headed by then India’s chief election commissioner Mr. James Michael Lyngdoh was formed to reform the electoral system currently practiced at university and college levels .
Most of the student leaders in colleges ae in their 30’s . They are enrolling in colleges just for the sake of contesting elections.
The report specifies that elections should be held annually, no donations from political parties should be allowed, a limit on poll expenditure to 5000 Indian rupees , age limit of 17-28 years , a ban on printed posters and banners .Additionally the candidate should be a regular student of the institute and have a minimum attendance of 75 percent and no criminal record . If these rules are followed then interference by political parties will definitely reduce , and genuine students can get a chance to become a real representative of students .

With a limit on campaign expenses the use of huge posters, open jeeps and luxury cars ,loud speakers which made all this process sensational and fascinating will fade out .

Lets hope that all these measures will be strictly enforced and Indian politics will be sanitized of all the evils from which it is suffering at present .










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