The State government will enact legislation to legalise the right of students to associate politically on campuses of educational institutions.
Minister for Higher Education K. T. Jaleel told the Assembly on Tuesday that the government would appeal against the recent High Court order banning political activity in educational institutions.
He said there isolated incidents of student violence were an aberration and not the norm. “The solution to a headache is not decapitation,” Mr Jaleel said.
The Minister was responding to two calling attention motions on the topic moved by Congress legislator V.T. Balaram and CPI(M) legislator M. Suraj separately. Mr Jaleel promised the new law would ensure that students had a say in academics and campus affairs.
The MLAs said they feared that banning politics on campuses would create a generation of apolitical citizens blind to the larger issues that affect the nation. They would have no clear stance or opinion on issues that matter to the people.
A vibrant and politically aware student community was crucial to the furtherance of parliamentary democracy.
They said a subculture of drug-fuelled violence and machismo and money and influence would dominate campuses if student politics took a back seat. Such a situation could not be allowed.
They also said student politics was essential to act as a democratic check on excesses of private managements that seek to profit from education.
Banning student politics meant chipping away at the right of students and depriving them the right to protest against arbitrary action on the part of management.
The MLAs said student unrest in campuses had sparked off most of the popular agitations in the country, including the freedom struggle.
Campus politics also reflected the aspirations of the youth and the idea of the polity they wanted to inherit.
Mr Jaleel sought bipartisan support for the proposed Bill, which he said the government hoped to circulate soon to seek public opinion. Organisations, leaders, opinion-makers, writers and intellectuals had stressed the need for a law to institutionalise political freedom on campuses.