Shun Dirty Politics

Yet again, a student union has vandalised university offices. As the news stories mentioned, the office of the Rector at Tribhuvan University (TU) and the Office of the Dean at the Institute of Science and Technology were vandalised over the decision to increase the fee. 

The TU, the oldest university in Nepal, has faced frequent intimidation from student organisations, belonging to various political parties. Whether it is the physical infrastructure or the intellectual professors and officials, rowdy students gang up in no time and attack them over minor differences. Political allegiance to different parties and the protection they get from leadership have emboldened unruly students and their associations. 

In the past, the Central Department of English was set on fire; a library at Trichandra Campus was torched; many professors were thrashed; senior university officials including the vice chancellor and registrars were smeared soot. The gang fights of politically indoctrinated student associations prevail especially in their elections and while bargaining with campus administration.

I vividly remember a horrible moment when I was a student at a campus in the Kathmandu Valley two and a half decades back, I saw a student leader brandishing an iron rod and challenging his rival. I used to regard him for his gift of the gab, but the day I saw him swinging the iron rod in hand and pelting bricks out of the campus premises, my regard for him reached a nadir.  

Many present-day political leaders have come from student politics. Although it is not unusual to have student unions at universities and colleges to advocate their rights to quality education, our student organisations/unions/associations have earned a bad reputation in the temple of knowledge that they function as the militant force of the political parties and leaders. Creating an amicable atmosphere for knowledge building and research with utmost collaboration with teachers is always a lesser priority. Dreaming high and setting an ambition to win over rival groups is their ultimate goal, securing political favour. 

Undoubtedly, quality education is often compromised by such unwarranted activities. Not only the student leaders but also their followers and genuine students are at the receiving end of the quality crisis triggered by the protests and obstructions in teaching-learning activities. Putting forth illogical demands and threatening teachers and officials is their intractable ritual, to which political leadership has failed to pay heed.   

Once such student unions act in unison and with utmost discipline, they can function as a pillar of university governance and also create a political atmosphere that keeps in centre people's concerns. But, in the absence of discipline, neither their education nor predictable political careers are guaranteed.  Later, many of them have no option but to regret having ruined their critical youthful days. 

Students mustn't enrol in universities to be politically indoctrinated and deepen their political interests there. It is a gross contradiction that many such students sometimes decry university and leadership, demanding quality education! Disgracing university teachers and officials and damaging physical properties on the one hand, and demanding quality education on the other is a shameful contradiction. The country is in urgent need of making universities as centres of excellence. It is high time our political parties terminated their student wings and the students jettisoned filthy politics.