Backdoor entry: Should Karnataka mainstream student political bodies?

Over decades ago, in 1989, Karnataka banned student elections on college campuses to keep institutions free from politics and violence. With this, the once politically-vibrant colleges saw student bodies affiliated with political parties disappearing.

In sharp contrast, Karnataka’s pre-university and degree colleges recently witnessed a politically vicious atmosphere owing to the hijab row.

In an effort to influence potential first-time voters, pro-Hindutva outfits and groups on the opposite side such as the SDPI are believed to have mobilised students by backing their protests.

The hijab row brought to fore how political outfits have, over the years, tried to gain a backdoor entry into colleges where they cannot have an active role because of the 1989 ban.

To keep their student wings relevant, parties have been recruiting collegegoers through initiatives outside the campus. In recent years they have also been getting their members appointed to university syndicates, depending on the government in power.

“Some of them operate indirectly by creating pressure groups and try to influence decisions on campus,” former Bangalore University vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev points out.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council B K Hariprasad, who was a student leader at Bangalore University in the 1970s, recalls the vibrant campus politics that existed before the ban.

“In Bangalore University there were three groups affiliated to Congress that were active on campus. In 1977, the government first banned the University Council elections. In 1989, there was a complete ban,” Hariprasad, a student of MES College, says. He, however, says that the ban on elections was not owing to violence as the popular perception goes, but because of pressure from political parties themselves who found student bodies to be pesky.

Today, with no active role to play on campuses, the presence of student political bodies is largely dictated by the political parties they are affiliated to. “If you let the students grow on their own, they will formulate their own initiatives. Now, they are being tutored by political parties,” Hariprasad laments.

The absence of student political bodies on campus has led to a vacuum of student leadership, according to Nagesh Kariyappa, National General Secretary, NSUI, a Congress-backed body.

According to Kariyappa, the hijab row in Karnataka would not have blown into a statewide conflict if there was an active student body in all colleges.

“Student groups would have intervened and the issue would have been resolved among students. The vendetta politics has become worse by suppressing students,” he believes, making a case for reintroducing campus elections.

Over the years, several governments have mulled bringing back campus elections. Former higher education minister G T Devegowda had mooted the proposal when he was in office under the JD(S)-Congress coalition in 2018. It did not materialise. Devegowda still believes that suppressing student elections will only lead to more problems. “There has to be full freedom for students. Then they will automatically engage themselves in constructive activities. The more you ban, the more devious the situation becomes,” he says.

Many political stalwarts in Karnataka have their roots in the student political movement including Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri, BJP leader N Ravi Kumar, Shivajinagar MLA Rizwan Arshad, Bangalore South BJP MP Tejasvi Surya among others.

However, not everyone wants these elections back. Academics, especially, believe that it is best to keep politics out of the campus. “There is no vacuum in leadership on campus by banning student political outfits. The situation is much better now. Students interested in politics should find avenues outside the campus,” Dev says. “Academics and politics should not be mixed.”

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