The
process for admission to colleges in Delhi University starts in June and with
it begins the election process for Delhi University Students Union. The ball is
set rolling with the student wings, affiliated to various political parties,
(viz the Congress, BJP, Communists etc) setting admission helpline in every
college campus to poach all new entrants to their political fold. On the
pretext of helping students with admission, the innocent minds are
systematically initiated into the political rut that has become the bane of
Indian political system. By August money power, muscle power and the madira (booze) power takes the better of
innocent minds who under the influence of their political masters execute all
the dirty tricks of the trade in the same manner as their political bosses do during
Assembly or Parliamentary elections. Already the walls and streets in Delhi have
come to cover with election posters of various green horns trying their luck at
the DUSU elections. I find it dismaying that students in India find it satisfying
at remaining mere pawn in the hands of their political masters. Prior to
independence, students on an appeal by Mahatma Gandhi had left their studies
and boycotted their schools and colleges run by an alien ruler to devote time
and energy for the independence movement. Career of thousands of students were
ruined. Those who did not pay heed to Mahatma’s appeal continued their studies,
left for foreign shores, appeared at the ICS and came back to rule over their own
countrymen after independence. Post independence students left their studies to
join the JP movement and an entire generation had to suffer due to delayed
academic sessions for decades together, while these leaders, the so called frontrunners
of “Total Revolution”, the architects of social engineering went on to create history
of the dubious kind becoming the first leader to be debarred from contesting an
election for their leading role in the fodder scam. Hence birth of a new youth
outfit the CYSS: Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh
Samiti- the student wing of the Aam Aadami Party (AAP) sent shivers down my
spine. I am reminded of a leader from Bihar who in the Sixties sought the
support of students referring them as his “jigar ke tukde” (part of his own
liver) and went on to become the Chief Minister of Bihar. However, after
winning the election he left the students in a lurch who suffered immensely due
to delayed academic session and other academic malaise for decades together.
I
do not know whether students ever ponder why their support is considered so
important by every political outfit? And if their support is so important why
can’t they extend their support on their own terms and condition which may
include cleansing up the political system of money, muscle and madira power? Why can’t they define
their own political destiny like a Vivekananda or a Bhagat Singh? Why do they end
up as mere pawns in the hands of these political masters? I wonder what
social, political and economic change can one expect from the generation next, given
their subservience to such political masters who have failed the Indian
democracy with their tainted records in public life.
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