Politics of students’ unions

The involvement of students in politics and social issues came to light yet again, after the news of S Anitha’s suicide made headlines. Anitha allegedly took her life after failing to secure a medical seat, despite scoring 1176/1200 in Class 12 board exams. Students from colleges across the city protested in a show of solidarity, forcing many educational institutions to close during the turbulent times. 

Similarly, the involvement of students was seen during the Neduvasal protest; nor can one forget the sea of youngsters who gathered at the Marina in December last year. Lakhs of students, from other districts too, agitated for over a week in Chennai. 

Interestingly, there was no involvement of college unions, nor did a student leader emerge out of these protests. Interactions with the student community here reveal that unlike Delhi, Chennai does not have a conducive atmosphere for student politics. Most of the government and government-aided colleges do not have an active union. Those who have, do not make a meaningful stand that could possibly translate into a political or social change. 

Pachaiyappa’s College, that is often in the news, has not had a students’ union elections for years. “We have not had any elections since 1996. Any student redressal can be brought to the notice of the management directly,” says S Kaliraj, Principal, Pachaiyappa’s College, who was recently allegedly attacked by the students. 

Institutions like the Presidency College, Dr Ambedkar Law University and Madras University neither organise student union elections nor do they have an elected representative. 

However, IIT-Madras, apart from an elected students’ body, has groups like the Ambedkar Study Circle, that often take up the causes. 

Insiders say that the absence of the student unions came about after a series of violent incidents post the student union elections in Presidency College. A circular was issued by the then state government requesting universities to stop union elections. 

This year, for the first time in its history, Loyola College did not conduct the student s’ election. “Till now, we conducted the elections in the traditional manner, but we are looking for different methodologies to conduct elections in the future,” says Alex Parimalam, Dean of students at Loyola.

Experts say that the situation was not always like this. In fact, students played an important role during the anti-Hindi agitation movement in the 60s and actively protested the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.  

“Many big political leaders in Tamil Nadu have emerged from the student movements in the past.  It is hypocritical that the same political leaders from all the major political parties have ensured that the student unions do not emerge. There is no major college union that one can point at. How can there be any educational institution without a proper student representation?” asks Ramu Manivannan, Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration in the University of Madras. 

He further adds, “The culture is such in Tamil Nadu that there is more focus on the fan clubs than on nurturing student unions selected in a democratic manner.” However, he says that involvement of students in political and social issues is a positive change. 

Making up for the lack of student unions are groups like All India Students Federation (student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and The Students’ Federation of India (student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who have actively involved themselves in the matters of college and universities. 

Dinesh S, State Secretary of AISF, says, “The government doesn’t want the campuses to be politicised. They are strictly told not to get involved with any political group, otherwise, it will affect their marksheets. There are no student unions in most of the government colleges and if you look at private colleges, they have strict eligibility norms for contesting the elections. 

If you see the criteria, they want the students to not have any arrears and the elected representatives are from the good books of the management. A student may have arrears but he/she could be a change-maker and have the conviction to serve the needs of the students. If you see the protests in most of these educational institutions, they are not brought to light by the elected representatives, but a separate group of non-elected students.” 

Educationist Prince Gajendra Babu says, “To have a student representation is a basic requirement in any educational institution. Even to   get a NAAC accreditation, colleges are required to have a college union. It is the private colleges that are bothered about this. The student council/union is elected but they are not encouraged to be politically aware. This is a basic democratic process that needs to be nurtured to prepare informed leaders and voters.” 

Clarifying that political parties did not enter campuses as there were clear restrictions from the present government in doing so, DMK spokesperson and advocate S Prasanna, says that on the contrary, the party has posted student leaders at the ward level and they were actively involved in roping in the youth into politics. 

“Since the government prohibits us from entering campuses, we do it at the local body level and ensure adequate representation from the community,” Prasanna says.