For all those youngsters who don't have a political background, student organisations, unions and college level politics spell the gates to enter the real political world.
The political stage of our country is fraught with many complicated issues. Corruption,
bureaucracy, violence and lack of empathy with the masses at the grassroots levels are some of the prominent features. Floor- crossing and switching of loyalties have become the order of the day.
Add a new dimension to the game of politics students and we have a new concoction of a dangerous political era that could affect our political as well economic lives for long times to come.
Politics in the college has become a hotbed of regional and national level political manipulations. Elections in the students unions of the colleges and the universities are in fact, proxy wars of the major political parties. Money, hooliganism, violence and gaudy promotions of Candidates in the elections of Students’ Councils are some of the prominent characteristics of elections held in colleges and universities. The educational schedules take a backseat and struggle for power takes ugly proportions in many cases.
Why students take to politics? For example, why should there be elections in an engineering college whose students are unlikely to join a political party ? The students of arts and politics are likely to be interested in this profession. But wastage of time and energy is an important issue. This wastage leads the students to ill-planned careers as they suffer on account of their poor performances on the academic front.
However, only some of the students join active politics later. The politicians milk them during their college days and leave them without any career when they join a political party. After all, a social worker of a political party remains a social worker. However, he has no support from his party for building his future or even for meeting his basic needs. He has to take up a profession or a, vocation in order to survive.
When the student leaders are elected in the college and university elections, they take their commands from their political bigwigs. Boys and girls, who are not adept at getting a decent job, are made Vice President, President and Secretary of a student union. They do not know what they are saying to the students as their words are the cooked up words of the politician who guides them. Their actions are controlled by the instructions from the offices of the major political parties.
Political events in the educational institutions lead to violence, destruction and colossal wastage of money. It is an irony that a student, who goes to his college by bus, is able to arrange enough of donations through his efforts for posters, loudspeakers, campaigns and other promotional gimmicks. Further, the leader of the students always have one difference or another.
The lost party always tends to resort to leg- pulling and violence. Elections bring outsiders especially criminals, hooligans and opportunists—on the centre stages of educational temples. The incidents of beating of candidates, murders, destruction of buses and private property and kidnapping of rival candidates are quite common.
Academic sessions are not held regularly. Even if the classes are held, the powerful student leaders force the students to close the college or the university for the sake of their petty demands ego. Those students who are interested in studies, suffer the most. They are not interested in political affiliations but are forced to vote and support a particular set of candidates. The academic and sports performances are also adversely affected.
The solution should be provided by the State in the form of legislation. Active politics is not bad for the College-going students but it should only assume dangerous proportions. Only those students, who are interested in taking up politics as career, should participate in political activities. The rest must avoid politics. Adoption of violence, money power, threats (physical and mental) and external political influences must be banned. Then only, the campus life would be more productive for the students.
The political parties must refrain from interfering in the educational institutes. Adequate legislations must be passed for separating politics from educational institutions. If a political party interferes in the affairs of the educational institutes, it should be banned. Students should join political mainstream of the country only after their educational stints in the colleges and universities are over.
Only serious students should take up political science as a subject. It has been observed that political science is studied by the students of arts for pursuing their graduation or post graduation courses in the arts stream. However, all these students end up with jobs of clerks and peons and political affiliations are cut off in the interest of the survival. Then, why study political science if it is not going to develop the students as political trendsetters of the future?
Political affiliations are always welcome. But this should happen only after the minds of the youth have become mature. The young minds must be able to think about their survival and later, about the political streams, which they are about to join. The final touches to this training should be given when the student joins a political party and has been able to achieve some landmarks during his academic life.
It must be noted that the psyche described earlier is not prevalent in all the strata of students (which includes the students of politics as well). Most the students are interested in joining the educational institutions, learn some useful skills, pass out after enjoying the college or university days and finally, settle down in a job or a business. Politics never fascinates Indian students and many surveys have proved this fact. So, there is no need for linking politics with educational institutes. This would help the State maintain healthy environment in the educational campuses.
We must conclude that politics and students must be separated in the interest of healthy political growth of the nation. The students of today are the torch bearers of the national progress in all spheres. Their tender minds must be trained carefully so that they are able to assimilate the political ideologies in the right perspective. Further, they must remain responsible to their parents and families during their educational stints and much more committed when they join active politics after completion of their education.
