College elections not base for future politics: Assam CM tells students

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to the students to understand that elections in education institutes are not a practice ground for Assembly or Loksabha elections

College elections are conducted to upgrade the leadership skills of the students and to improve the quality of the institute but some students consider this as a base for future politics, and that is wrong, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday.

(File)

Addressing an event in Guwahati, he said, “These elections are conducted to upgrade the leadership qualities of the students and to improve the quality of the institute. But some students consider this as a base for future politics, and that is wrong.”

He appealed to the students to understand that elections in education institutes are not a practice ground for Assembly or Loksabha elections.

“The methods that the students are taking nowadays, is not good. In our assembly or general elections, the post-poll violence is much lower than the education institute elections,” he said.

“In my opinion, there must be open debates between the students in the presence of the teachers before the elections. They should debate on education related issues,” he added.

Sarma said that he is seriously concerned about the internal environment of hostels in some of the higher education institutes in Assam. Referring to the last year’s Dibrugarh University case, where a student jumped from the second floor after an alleged ragging, Sarma said that he still feels disturbed.

“As the chief minister of Assam and a parent, I am saying that I feel deeply concerned about these incidents. Environment in hostels of some higher education institutes in Assam is not good and we are working hard to improve this,” he said.

Recalling his days in Cotton College (now Cotton University), Sarma said that it was tough for the students to stay outside after 7pm and they had to answer the seniors if they did anything unusual.

“There was a positive culture, students used to make rules and they used to implement them for larger interest of the students. We used to follow the rules and that helped us to lead life under discipline,” he added.

In recent times, Assam has witnessed several cases of torture and assault on students. Earlier this year, two students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Silchar were allegedly thrashed by 18 seniors.

A first information report (FIR) was registered against the 18 fourth year students and the NIT Silchar authorities later suspended most of the accused students. In Dibrugarh University case, several students were suspended, and the prime accused was arrested by the police.