Campus polls are here again. We should welcome it

gives students – arguably the biggest stakeholders on campus – a voice and firmer locus standi. Student issues, which could easily be stomped and trampled over by authority, get attention and scope for redress.

Mumbai University for instance, as this newspaper reported on Thursday, has been beset by flawed curriculums, appalling hostel facilities, fee structures that make no sense, and what have you.

This affects quality of education, student life, and financial health of those on campus. College and university councils made up of students can go a long way in resolving these matters, and there is no better way of forming these councils than by elections.

However, this is where problems can admittedly arise. Elections can get out of hand and even turn violent, as happened in 1989 when Owen D’souza, a student of Mithibai College, was killed, subsequently leading to the ban on campus elections in the state.

This was a reprehensible event and the trepidations of some principals and parents even now are understandable. But I think a distinction needs to be made between isolated acts of violence, which should be contained by effective administration, and criminalisation of campus politics by political parties.

Therein lies the real danger, as we have seen in recent years, namely in the Rohit Vemula case in Hyderabad University, the almost daily fracas in JNU, and unrest in several other university campuses across the country.

The solution to this is not in banning parties from having student wings that participate in campus elections. Being exposed to and confronting various ideologies is part of growing up and student life.

In any case, in this information age, and especially with the massive network of social media where political messaging can be spread through Whatsapp, Facebook, and Twitter unhindered and faster than the speed of light, such controls are totally ineffective.

The issue is not so much the dissemination of ideology as to the methods used and the end objectives of campus politics. Is this really for the benefit of students, and by extension, for society and country in the future is the question to be asked of political parties: Left, Right and Centre.