Students Unions in colleges and universities are initiated mostly for students rights in the colleges or there rights after their education like their employment rights. Students use these organisations as a platform for raising their voice through different kinds of collective actions like peaceful protests or strikes etc.
But in the prsent context, in our country most of these organisations have been politicised and are thus used or misused by different political parties.
So do we need such kind of student organisations?
If yes then how these organisations should be functioning?
And how the political parties should be refrained from interfering with these kinds of organisations?
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ASSERTING ONES RIGHT COLLECTIVELY IS VERY IMPORTANT,IT INVOLVES PEACEFUL PROTESTS ,BUT IN CERTAIN CASES INORDER TO GET IMMEDIATE ACTION CERTAIN DEGREES OF FORCEFUL PROTEST IS NEEDED,AFTER ALL IT IS NOT ORGANISED BUT SPONTANEOUSLY COLLECTIVE.MYSELF BEING A STUDENT LEADER IN A POLITICAL ORGANISATION HAVE SEEN MANY TIMES HOW FORCEFUL PROTEST HAVE GIVEN SUCCESS COMPARED PEACEFUL PROTESTS AND THIS ACTS AS A RATIONAL BEHAVIOUR OR PATTERN FOR NEXT PROTESTS TO ACHIEVE STUDENTS RIGHT.IT IS A LEGITIMATE RIGHT.POLITICAL PARTIES INFACT HELP STUDETS IN MAKING THEMM AWARE OF SOCIAL REALITIES THAT EXIST AT GROUND LEVELS IN THE SOCIETY.A STUDENT INSULATED FROM POLITICAL ORGAISATIONS WILL NOT BE IN BETTER POSITION TO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL REALITIES.
WHEN A STRIKE IS CALLED IT BRINGS OUT THE COLLECTIVE SPIRIT AND MOBILISES YOUTH AND THEIR IDEAS,WHICH R VERY IMPORTANT.
every year thousands of odd human beings fetch a garland for themselves owing to the electricity. should we shun the use of electricity?cynical, isn't it? same is the case with the student politics.we as a country rely on the democracy.It is the youth of this country who needs to inculcate the principals of democracy , of participatory approach in its functioning.The student politics is important in constructing that scaffold of collective action in the mind set of the new generation. Ya each one of us know that democracy is riddled by improprieties but than is we having any other better option? if not than we should veer our sinews to transform the democracy and why not to start with the base, the students politics.
why does every one fear students unions?why are they always being looked at with a sceptical eye?
this has been a formal democratic country since the time the constitution was framed. does that mean anything or is it just another fancy word to be used by the 'intellectuals'? the very basis on which the country functions is the fact that there is a mechanism to question and correct. the right to organise is as rightly said a very legitimate right.
the fact that this right has been misused so many times does not mean that the baby needs to be thrown out with the bathwater.
taking an example,in colleges where the whole evaluation is done internally- that is, the marks are given by the very faculty who teach the students. there have been instances of partiality or bias creeping up in their evaluation criteria. college unions have successfully fought against this system and a percentage of marks was made mandatory by external evaluation. this is just one of the numerous examples that i could quote from my own experience.
again, where do the future leaders of india come from? are they being bred somewhere else and at the age of 35 brought here to fight the elections? a good percentage of todays leaders have been involved in students politics at some point in their lives.
but this is not to say that there are no discrepancies in the system;but arent they everywhere?
“Organized as formal unions or not, students helped India win Independence and now they fight for many social and community causes. Of course, one does not come across an agitation by them to improve academic standards”.
A student union is formed by the students without the involvement of the educational faculty. They are for the students and by the students. They put forwards the critical issues of students both at the local and national level. So, there is little doubt in questioning their existence. Moreover, they provide a training ground for aspiring politicians. Campaigning and debate is often very vigorous, with the youthful enthusiasm of the various partisans, a student media that is itself often partisan, inexperienced, and under no financial pressure to slant coverage to please a broad readership, and a general lack of serious consequences for decision all encouraging political gamesmanship. The following observations were made by Supreme Court regarding the student unions:
First, the apex court expressed concern that college union elections were creating unrest on the campuses. "This is happening all over the country. There should be some control on eligibility for contesting the elections," it said. Second, it noted that there were several instances when students study one course after another in the same college only to contest the union elections. Third, it noted that in many cases the expenditure on college union elections were high and suggested a ceiling on expenses. Instances of faculty being beaten or invigilator being manhandled by student leaders have surfaced many times.
We need to curb this menace. It appears as though they want nothing to do with academic excellence. Maybe, parents are happy with the arrangement and tax-payers are comfortable with the unique role of some universities, that of training young minds for political occupations.
Its high time to make laws to limit the political intervention in the functioning of student unions. Also, one needs to re-incarnate the union to form a Student Associations for Academic Excellence to improve the international reputation of our country.
Dr.Rajat Chabba
28032
Student unions have always been in the limelight, both for their good deeds and accomplishments as well as for the nuisances created by them. Ya, it is a much debated topic. Discussions are going on throughout India even now with much enthusiasm and involvement. Now, the question arises, which side of the weighing balance is more heavy?
Having spent more than 7 years of education in colleges where there were active participation of student unions, i have my own experiences. Based on them, I am totally against the student unions which exist today in our campuses.
During my two years of pre-degree course,i saw the campus which was otherwise beautiful and peaceful turning into a battlefield during elections. There were fights and even bloodsheds. I saw close friends contesting from 2 different parties becoming enemies for ever just because of the student politics. I see no meaning in creating unrest and violence in the campus because of a single event happening once a year..This doesn't mean that i'm totally against student unions. My opposition is against the politicization of campuses meant for academic purposes.
During my graduation days, i saw the dirty face of student politics once again. In a professional college which is created with the purpose of attaining center of excellence status, what can we say when it's "prestigious" students are spending weeks on weaving the strategies for defeating his opponent rather than concentrating on his studies. It also happened that because of their POLITICS we lost 1 month of our life as the college authorities were forced to close the college when the situations were going out of control. Some of my friends even got admitted in a hospital as they had serious injuries on their head and body parts. Thankfully, everyone survived. Who will answer the questions of their parents, who had sent them to the college with high dreams? Who will give us back the time that we lost as a result of their activism? Who will take the responsibility of our losing the chance for higher education that year as the classes did not end in time due to this lag?
After all, who is benefiting out of these problems? How many big political leaders are born out of such campus politics? I would say only the vested interests of some politicians are met by this.
I believe in democracy, but not at the cost of valuable academic days. A better option would be to set up institutes which train youth or students to become future RULERS of our country. At the same time, the support provided to students by various political parties should be strongly curbed. Strong actions should be taken against violence and other nuisances to the peaceful running of academic activities. Then only democracy will attain its true meaning. Because democracy guarantees the right to leave peacefully for each citizen.
Princy Agnes John (p28087)Section B
No doubt, that students should be a part of democracy. But asserting their rights through Students Unions does not seem to be a viable option considering the present situation. As we can witness that majority of the students unions across the country some how become a part of larger political parties and hence deviate from their real goal and real issues. As generally happens during institutionalisation that goals and objectives change with time, same is the case which happens with the students unions. Rather my personal experience suggests that few of the innocent students get involved in these activities and are badly dragged away from studies. Later they are left with no other choices.
According to my view a collective action can only be initiated when people believe in its ideology or gain some interest from it. But somewhere down the line this ideology may be lost or modified to suit the vested interests of a few influential people.
Accordingly a movement may create two institutions to operationalize as in many cases we see. A very striking example is in the case of student movement of late 70s in Assam. The movement that was initially started with same ideology was later divided into two institutions. One worked for advocacy (political wing)- The All Assam Students Union (AASU) while the other took to extremism - The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).
Today both these movements are working for different interests though the genesis was same.
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