While student politics in Kashmir’s academic institutions has been a subject of debate for quite some time now, the ruling National Conference (NC) recently threw up a surprise by launching its first ever student union. The formation of National Conference Student Union (NUSU) is likely to shift focus on the continued ban on the student union at the University of Kashmir.
In 2010, Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani caught the security apparatus of the University of Kashmir (KU) off guard. He marched inside the campus and addressed a mammoth gathering of students while government watched. Embarrassed, the ruling National Conference which had managed to install a key aide Riyaz Punjabi as the vice chancellor reacted by crushing student politics in the university. The Kashmir University Students Union (KUSU) was banned and its office levelled during nocturnal raids, a move that sparked off huge debate and criticism even from the academia.
While the ban was imposed on KUSU, Congress, National Conference and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party made attempts to install their student body at the campus, although covertly. The university constantly kept denying.
With the NC announcing its student union, a covert process set about by the party when Punjabi was at the helm of affairs has come to a visible conclusion. During the launch the chief minister said that “the students were the torchbearers of a new and better tomorrow.” The announcement is likely to shift focus on the continued ban on the student activism at Kashmir’s highest seat of learning.
Omar said: “Students activism is the need of the hour.” But the University of which Omar is the pro-vice chancellor, despite Supreme Court ordering formation of student bodies, have dealt with an iron fist with attempts by apolitical groups to promote student activism. While the authorities have constantly maintained that no such activity shall be allowed, it has often found itself bowing to its political masters.
Last year, the Congress scion Rahul Gandhi while on visit to the campus brushed aside the reports about launching a membership drive of his party’s youth wing, but soon after National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) launched its wing at the varsity.
NSUI in collaboration with the university arranged a Delhi tour of KU students. The tour, in which students meet various Congress leaders, had been kept under wraps to ‘covertly’ push NSUI’s agenda, says a source.
Sources in the administration say the nod for the tour was given by the new vice chancellor Talat Ahmad, considered close to the Congress. “Contrary to the decision, the vice chancellor had stated the he would think over the demand of banned KUSU,” sources claim. Surprisingly, the varsity didn’t take into confidence the ‘apolitical’ students group of class representatives which was formed last year for ‘student welfare’. The university registrar came up with a statement during Rahul’s visit that there shall be no membership drive on the campus. However, questions were raised that if the university was against any political activity then how was NSUI part of the tour.
Pertinently, Rahul, during his interaction at the KU, had asked some students to visit Delhi and promised to take them to ministries and share concerns with them.
A senior professor says while the university tacitly approved the attempts by the Congress and the National Conference, overtly it issued statements denying its support. He says the moves by the political parties were to solidify their bases, but the majority of students have stayed away. “There is a double standard on part of the university and students are not sheep who can be goaded,” he remarks.
Having been left out in the race to lure students, the Opposition president Mehbooba Mufti alleged that the campus was being used for political dominance. She called for transparent and fair student activism at the campus, particularly after elections for the students’ union were held at the other major university for the first time since the outbreak of insurgency.
Omar during the launch said: “Emphasis should be placed on promoting parliamentary-style debating.” But, with the ban on KUSU not having been revoked, his claim of a parliamentary system of debating seems mere eyewash.