Published in the Indian Express
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The NSUI has made a decisive comeback in these DUSU elections, winning 3 out of 4 seats of the student union. After many unofficial confirmations including to the media, the result for the last seat (Joint Secretary) was changed at the last minute and the Election Commission refused a recount or give EVM-wise breakup of votes polled by each candidate. The NSUI has thus submitted a complaint to the Grievance Commission of DU and is also moving Court with an election petition. The verdict however goes beyond seats won and lost. While our comeback after 4 years shows that the students have rejected the politics of hate, division and ideological totalitarianism, DUSU poll outcome is also a positive mandate for the NSUI. The NSUI pitched this election as a contest over the idea of the university itself and the role of student unions within the university space. And the students have spoken decisively.
At its core, university is a place to develop critical thinking: inquiry, dialogue, debate, dissent are virtues in this conception of the university space. These are virtues too of active citizenship in a democracy. However, over the last few years, there has been a concerted attempt to change the character of the university space through systematic use of violence and intimidation. Instead of free flow of ideas, a single idea is being propagated. Debate over this single idea is not just discouraged but crushed through the use of force. Students and teachers have been beaten up; seminars, documentary screenings, theatre festivals etc have been forcibly canceled. Police has been brought into the university campus not for security but censorship. It has become difficult to even schedule discussions with events, topics, panelists and discussants having to be pre-approved. Under the ruling Party, the university is becoming a space for indoctrination not education.
Student union elections are an opportunity for students to assert democratic control over the university space and in the above context, have acquired significance beyond the university itself. However over the years, most student unions have themselves lost democratic legitimacy. There is a perception of the student union space having been taken over by professional politicians and/or thugs. This alienation is reflected across universities in the country. Consequently many states have found it easy to stop student union elections altogether. Even within DU, many colleges have opted out of DUSU elections. This trend should be opposed because it is using the current crisis of legitimacy of student representation to do away with democratic representation altogether.
The NSUI thus ran a two-pronged campaign: we asked students to #TakeBackDU while clearly articulating what we see as the role of student unions in the governance of the university. Launching our manifesto well in advance, we focused on four areas where a student union is relevant in a university:
Provide a forum to resolve student grievances vis a vis the administration: this is specially important because these grievances run the whole gamut from pedagogical concerns to infrastructural deficiencies, administrative issues, discrimination etc. Individual students are either powerless to get their grievances resolved or are increasingly victimised when they raise their voice. Moreover there are too systemic concerns which are best addressed collectively instead of selectively for individual students
Enable structured student participation in academic and executive decision-making of the University
To provide support and facilitation for students who need additional help to assimilate and get the best out of their university experience
To provide a platform for student learning, exploration and community: in DU, while some colleges engage students across multiple interests, most colleges leave students to their own resources leaving them bereft of valuable experiences.
Encompassing and permeating all the above is the conception of the university itself. The NSUI sees universities as a public good not a clique for the rich where even public universities are rapidly acquiring characteristics of private universities. Under this dispensation, public universities are increasingly moving to self-financing courses with prohibitive tuition fees. The newly opened School of Journalism in Delhi University has annual fees of Rs 77000 compared to the already high fees of Rs 27000 for journalism in LSR. In Delhi University, each college has to raise funds from students instead of being covered wholly by grants from the Government. Consequently, fees varies from from Rs 3000 to Rs 48000 across colleges and courses pricing out many colleges from poor students’ reach. Connected to this is the need to make space in the universities for the marginalised - dalits, adivasis, women, first generation learners - and be responsible for their assimilation for this space to be meaningful. We are also clear that the University is a place to cultivate independent thought not regiment thinking; place to get an education not just to get a job but to develop perspective.
Three organisations - NSUI, ABVP and AISA - were in the fray in these elections. The main issues highlighted by the other two organisations were hostels, university buses and metro passes. AISA also raised ABVP’s goondaism. While violence on university campus is a very important concern, focus on these other issues is indicative of the limited imagination of both ABVP and AISA as far as the role of student unions is concerned. It is not that these issues are not important - they are and NSUI is committed to addressing them - but they are almost municipal concerns, which do nothing to address the real questions of governance of Delhi University. The NSUI on the other hand highlighted the disparity and hierarchy between campuses and colleges, high fees, the need for a grievance redress process, facilitation for marginalised students as its main issues. These issues are difficult to raise because they are not already common currency among students but they are fundamental to the governance of any university. The NSUI has also raised the constraints on personal freedoms being imposed by the ABVP and its parent organisation, the RSS in universities across the country.
It is evident that these issues resonated with the students. Our DUSU win is more than just a satisfying victory over the bigotry of the ABVP; it is the beginning of an exciting new shift in student politics.