By IANS
Lucknow : Students and political parties in Uttar Pradesh are up in arms against Chief Minister Mayawati’s “undemocratic” decision to ban student union elections in all universities and affiliated colleges in the state.
Several former office bearers of the Lucknow University Students Union are upset with the decision announced late Friday and some former academicians, including a vice chancellor, have questioned the move.
“I really wonder if such an idea could be welcomed in a democracy,” remarked Professor Roop Rekha Verma, former vice chancellor of Lucknow University. “Since implementation of the Lyngdoh committee recommendations initiated by the country’s apex court has ensured major curbs on lawlessness in these elections by keeping criminals out of the electoral fray, a healthy student union activity should not be discontinued in the larger interest of keeping alive a democratic ethos,” she said.
Earlier, justifying the order, Mayawati had said in a press statement: “Union elections are not only vitiating the atmosphere on the campuses but also often create law and order problems and cause innumerable miseries for common people.”
Activists in student politics feel the decision was most likely prompted by the vested interest of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). “It was quite apparent that the ban was imposed simply because the BSP still does not have any base in student unions in the state,” Ram Singh Rana, a former university union president, told IANS Saturday.
Other student leaders like Pawan Pandey and Rajpal Kashyap went to the extent of alleging that the chief minister had made students redundant in politics “because they are not in a position to shell out money to get a party nomination, as party tickets are sold blatantly”. They propose to move court against the “official diktat”.
Samajwadi Party leader Shiv Pal Yadav, also the younger brother of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, said: “We are going to oppose the Mayawati government’s dictatorial order through demonstrations across the state.”
This is the fourth time since independence that curbs have been clamped on student unions in the state. The first time in 1967, it was then chief minister Charan Singh who made membership of student unions optional, leading to virtual desertion of student unions. Its impact continued until about 1972 when the old system was restored by a Congress government.
Once again in 1977, the then Janata Party government rendered the student unions dysfunctional.
Thereafter in 2000, then education minister Om Prakash Singh in the Bharatiya Janata Party-BSP coalition regime, introduced certain reforms whereby an upper age limit of 25 years was fixed for all contestants, thereby curbing the entry of undesirable elements in these unions.
However, when Mulayam Singh Yadav took over the reins of the state in August 2003 he lifted all curbs on unions. What followed was the return of lawlessness on the campuses. At least 12 students, including three in Lucknow University, lost their lives in the violence that rocked different universities in the state between 2003 and 2006.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court constituted a committee under former chief election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh to look into the issue. It was amid much opposition that Lucknow University vice chancellor R.P. Singh managed to implement the Lyngdoh recommendations in December last year – helping to restore some semblance of order on the university campus. Elections were not held in the last academic session as almost all contestants were among students expelled or suspended.