On June 7, 2017, the West Bengal government issued an order that laid down certain rules and regulations to the student elections in West Bengal. The rules state that “the Students’ Council of colleges and universities shall not use any banner or emblem of any political party in any manner during election or campaigning” and that “every student contesting in the election… shall be identified by his own name, class or section and roll number and nothing else.” The term student union has been replaced by student council.
Moreover, the models differ on many more fundamental structures. Various positions of this council including the President and Treasurer will not be elected by the students but nominated by the head of that specific institute. The Class Representatives will vote and choose it’s General Secretary instead of direct elections. Basically, this body would be stripped of its political voice or ability to reconcile under a banner to raise demands of the students. It would be limited to organizing cultural events and other such activities.
This move comes a few years after the Hok Kolorob movement by the students of Jadavpur University which evolved in a larger students’ movement that gave the Mamata Banerjee-led state government jitters. The student community of West Bengal was always known to be political with a rich history of participation in freedom struggles, fighting against social evils, being part of the Naxal movement and a progressive stance on many other issues.
But post-2011, the ability of the student community to mobilize itself around relevant issues has been shrinking to the extent that the rich political consciousness has diluted to give a sense of disdain to such ideas. Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of Trinamool Congress, holds 90% of the student unions in the state with little or no opposition in almost all universities barring Presidency and Jadavpur where independent organisations as well as student bodies such as the SFI, AISA, etc. continue to operate. Students of these two universities continue to actively raise issues pertaining the students community and have often thus faced the ire of the Supremo and her ministers.
Recently, the students of Jadavpur University held a referendum to choose between an apolitical council or the usual union. This was a part of their long struggle to fend off attempts to enforce the Xavier’s model of a student council (St. Xavier’s College is a noted institute of higher education in West Bengal, that does not hold the union model, but that of a largely unpoliticised student council). The participation of students were over in numbers and they voted against the undemocratic student council. The notion of a union defeated the council with a thumping majority of 97%.
But, the need of a democratic space within the campus and the union at its helm is a concept alien to most students in Kolkata. Thanks to the hooliganism and muscle power of the TMCP, the common students of Bengal seem to equate this tendency of political violence as a direct result of politicization of the campus. They have grown to apoliticize themselves especially within campus because any form of dissenting or rival political views are crushed by the ruling party’s students wing by using unchecked violence. Several incidents of taking “Cut Money” or bribes by such student leaders also cause a growing apathy towards student politics.
Although, it isn’t true that the need of the student movement is lost. The continuous rise in fees accompanied by other obstacles makes it even more tougher for students to pursue their academics. Recently, Calcutta University introduced the CBCS system in its affiliated colleges all the while lacking minimum infrastructure to properly execute the courses. This added burden has seen many students being barred to sit for exams as they could not meet the minimum attendance cut off. The ratio of teacher to student is also very steeply skewed, thus overburdening the faculty all the while failing to provide healthy education to the students.
As of August 23, 2019, The state government of West Bengal has not issued any instruction or information as to when the next student union polls will be held in multiple colleges and universities across the state. If speculations are to be true then elections are making a comeback within the campuses. But it’s form is still under debate as a few colleges and universities such as Jadavpur will resist the council model.
So, it remains to be seen whether ‘poriborton’ (Bangla term for change) completes its cycle of irony and the once student leader-turned-Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seals campus politics and puts an end to Bengal’s rich history of student activism of which she holds a part.