University campuses have been launching pads for several top national leaders
NEW DELHI: The ongoing students’ agitation in Delhi University have prompted certain quarters to demand that politicians stop ‘polluting young minds’ and quit campuses.
However, campuses in India and abroad have historically mirrored the national politics of the day. And it’s no coincidence that many of the frontline politicians cut their teeth in student and youth movements, facing police lathis and incarceration.
While recent agitations in DU, JNU, Hyderabad Central University, Banaras Hindu University, Pune FTII, Madras IIT could be termed islands of protests, there have been larger student agitations which triggered events that changed the course of Indian politics in the past.
It was the students-led Navnirman Andolan in Gujarat — the Jayaprakash Narayanblessed students’ agitation that spread across from Bihar’s Patna University campus — that culminated in the historic Lok Sabha by-election in Madhya Pradesh where anti-Congress Opposition fielded Jabalpur University students union leader Sharad Yadav as the ‘peoples candidate’ to defeat the Congress nominee.
It shook the entrenched Indira Gandhi government, led to the imposition of Emergency and triggered a national movement that led to the Janata Party assuming power at the Centre.
Among those at the forefront of the student agitations then were Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Sushil Kumar Modi, Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Manoj Sinha, Nitish Kumar, Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat and KC Tyagi, all prominent national-level leaders of various parties today.
Along with JP, then Opposition stalwarts such as Morarji Desai, AB Vajpayee, George Fernandes and LK Advani played a key role in supporting student agitations and converting them into a national Opposition movement. Old timers remember how JP, Vajpayee etc addressed students’ rallies in campuses including Delhi University and Patna University.
On the other side, Youth Congress/NSUI leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Vayalar Ravi, Digvijaya Singh, Anand Sharma, Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot, Tariq Anwar and Gurudas Kamat provided political and organisational fire-power to the Indira-Sanjay Gandhi-led Congress’ fight back.
During the Bofors’ agitation, Opposition mascot VP Singh toured many campuses. Later, student agitations rocked many parts of country when they came out in support or against the VP Singh regime’s implementation of the Mandal Commission report.
Talking to ETfrom Patna, on the current row, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, former secretary of the Patna University Students Union said, “The Communist controlled SFI, AISF, always showed extreme intolerance in their strongholds whenever other students union tried to raise their voices in campuses.
The same thing is evident now in JNU and other places.” However, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury differed: “Campuses will continue to mirror the mood of politics in the country just as it happened in the past.
Dissent is an essential ingredient of democracy and shall remain so. One may differ with views but who are these people (BJP and ABVP) to brand agitating students as anti-nationals? It is not they, but the Constitution and democracy that shall prevail.”
“With their sectarian political and ideological outlook, who are these BJP and ABVP leaders to define what is nationalistic and what is antinational? They must follow the Constitution,” said Congress leader Anand Sharma.
However, campuses in India and abroad have historically mirrored the national politics of the day. And it’s no coincidence that many of the frontline politicians cut their teeth in student and youth movements, facing police lathis and incarceration.
While recent agitations in DU, JNU, Hyderabad Central University, Banaras Hindu University, Pune FTII, Madras IIT could be termed islands of protests, there have been larger student agitations which triggered events that changed the course of Indian politics in the past.
It was the students-led Navnirman Andolan in Gujarat — the Jayaprakash Narayanblessed students’ agitation that spread across from Bihar’s Patna University campus — that culminated in the historic Lok Sabha by-election in Madhya Pradesh where anti-Congress Opposition fielded Jabalpur University students union leader Sharad Yadav as the ‘peoples candidate’ to defeat the Congress nominee.
It shook the entrenched Indira Gandhi government, led to the imposition of Emergency and triggered a national movement that led to the Janata Party assuming power at the Centre.
Among those at the forefront of the student agitations then were Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Sushil Kumar Modi, Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Manoj Sinha, Nitish Kumar, Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat and KC Tyagi, all prominent national-level leaders of various parties today.
Along with JP, then Opposition stalwarts such as Morarji Desai, AB Vajpayee, George Fernandes and LK Advani played a key role in supporting student agitations and converting them into a national Opposition movement. Old timers remember how JP, Vajpayee etc addressed students’ rallies in campuses including Delhi University and Patna University.
On the other side, Youth Congress/NSUI leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Vayalar Ravi, Digvijaya Singh, Anand Sharma, Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot, Tariq Anwar and Gurudas Kamat provided political and organisational fire-power to the Indira-Sanjay Gandhi-led Congress’ fight back.
During the Bofors’ agitation, Opposition mascot VP Singh toured many campuses. Later, student agitations rocked many parts of country when they came out in support or against the VP Singh regime’s implementation of the Mandal Commission report.
Talking to ETfrom Patna, on the current row, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, former secretary of the Patna University Students Union said, “The Communist controlled SFI, AISF, always showed extreme intolerance in their strongholds whenever other students union tried to raise their voices in campuses.
The same thing is evident now in JNU and other places.” However, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury differed: “Campuses will continue to mirror the mood of politics in the country just as it happened in the past.
Dissent is an essential ingredient of democracy and shall remain so. One may differ with views but who are these people (BJP and ABVP) to brand agitating students as anti-nationals? It is not they, but the Constitution and democracy that shall prevail.”
“With their sectarian political and ideological outlook, who are these BJP and ABVP leaders to define what is nationalistic and what is antinational? They must follow the Constitution,” said Congress leader Anand Sharma.
