Campus anarchy

The VC has been entirely correct in denying admission to a set of 'professional' students who are seeking to use university politics as a platform for jumping into national politics.

The closure, till further notice, of Jamia Millia University by its Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan has underscored the sordid state of university-level politics in India. That the central university has been handed over to the police and the Rapid Action Force only shows the extent to which student leaders and their antics have become a byword for hooliganism and anarchy; the RAF is, after all, a riot containment unit. This must be a sad decision for Hasan, who reintroduced campus polls in Jamia last year in an effort to give students a democratic voice. That this voice has once again been hijacked by lumpen elements is amply clear from the on-campus rampage that apparently resulted in damages of over Rs 50 lakh. Given Jamia’s troubled history, the VC has been entirely correct in denying admission to a set of ‘professional’ students who are seeking to use university politics as a platform for jumping into national politics, or sheer hooliganism.

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Ever since the voting age was reduced to 18, it has made little sense to keep campuses outside the purview of politics. Yet, a great deal can be done to ensure that campus politics is about learning how politics ought to be practised, rather than simulating the criminal-ridden world of real politics in the country. Across northern India, there has been a steady downward spiral, as is evident in the record of the past year -- the killing of student leaders (Allahabad University), repeated agitations by students (Jamia Millia), ostentatious campaigning (Delhi University), banning of elections in educational institutes (Rajasthan) and the paucity of any real issues in the last bastion of healthy political culture (JNU). The Supreme Court’s concern, followed by a directive last year to the HRD Ministry to clean up campus polls, was an attempt to contain incidents just as the one that has overnight turned Jamia Millia University into a ‘disturbed area’.