Teach them a lesson

The killing of a professor at Ujjain's college by a student mob calls for immediate setting up of proper electoral system in campuses.

The death of Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal, a professor at Ujjain's Government Madhav Arts and Commerce College, at the hands of a student mob calls for the immediate setting up of a proper electoral system on campuses as directed earlier by the Supreme Court. The students were protesting against the cancellation of campus polls. As poll supervisors, the hapless professor and two of his colleagues found themselves at the receiving end of the students' ire. Hooliganism and violence in universities is a story being retold far too often across campuses. That the police did not seriously react to earlier violence at the university tells its own story: the 'unwillingness' of the police to 'mess' with lumpen elements because they are 'backed' by political parties.

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We have argued before that student politics must be infused with a sense of purpose and not be plagued with only a hankering for pelf and power. Just over a month ago, students in Delhi's Jamia Millia University unleashed mayhem when over-age 'students' were denied re-admission. There are two things to seriously worry about here. One, the calibre of students opting to fight campus polls - mainly criminal elements. Second, student elections have become wrestling matches with scant regard for norms or form. The Supreme Court took notice of the criminalisation of student politics and gave directives for a committee, headed by JM Lyngdoh, to fix things. It was to oversee the setting up of a democratic mechanism for campus polls to ensure that they were conducted freely and fairly. The committee's report has suggested measures that should help reduce the criminal elements on campuses.

Yet, procedural practices will help only to a point. They must be accompanied by law and order strictures for campaigning students. Supervising college elections should not be a life-threatening prospect. The same safety net must be provided on campus as it is to any polling officer. There are ways of protesting, and it is for political parties to realise that in nurturing such ruffians, they jeopardise their own base for the future.