Indore (Madhya Pradesh): While the results of student union elections of Delhi University are making national-level headlines, Madhya Pradesh government has no intention of promoting student leadership in the state. Thus, student union elections will not be held in the higher education institutions in the state this year too.
Continuing the custom, Department of Higher Education (DHE) has mentioned in the academic calendar for session 2023-24 that a student council will be formed in universities in September/October but the fact remains that a proposal for the conduct of student union polls has been rejected of late for the sixth year in a row.
“Assembly elections are due in the next two months so students’ union elections in HEIs are out of question,” said a top-ranking officer in the DHE wishing anonymity. Replying to a query that it’s the sixth consecutive year that student union polls were not held in the HEIs, he stated that student union elections are not among the priorities of the government.
Both NSUI and ABVP lashed out at the government for not holding student polls in universities and colleges. NSUI leader Vikas Nadwana said, “Students’ unions, which present the best-organised way of building understanding between students and the institute administration, have no place in this state.”
“There’s no respect for the Supreme Court’s directives and no reply to the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) missive that calls for holding students’ union elections in institutes of higher learning,” he added. Students face multiple problems, especially related to exams and results, but there is no elected body to fight for their cause.
“The state government, apparently, doesn’t want students’ interference in policy decisions for higher education. Otherwise, there was no reason why elections weren’t conducted in the state,” an ABVP leader said wishing anonymity. After decades, elections were held in 2011 in indirect mode following a letter from the UGC in which it quoted the apex court order. But, after that, the government did not conduct elections for six years. In 2017 again, students’ elections were held, but the university-level council was not formed. Since then, the government has again gone silent on students’ union formation.
Varsities face contempt
Following this ‘unofficial’ ban on students’ unions, state universities, including Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV), face contempt for not holding students’ union polls but they have no choice as right to grant permission for the polls rests with the state government. The apex court in 2006 had directed implementation of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations on students’ union elections.
Direct or indirect, or hybrid of both
The Lyngdoh Committee recommendations issued by the UGC in 2007 stated that students’ union elections should be conducted directly or indirectly or a hybrid of both over five years. “Where the atmosphere of the university campus is adverse for the conduct of free and fair elections, the university, its constituent colleges and departments must initiate a system of student representations based on nominations, especially where elections are being held at present.
It would be advisable, however, not to base such a nomination system purely on academic merit as is being practised throughout the country,’ the recommendations read. “… all institutions must, over five years, convert from the nomination model to a structured election model, that may be based on a system of parliamentary (direct) elections, or the presidential (indirect) system or a hybrid of both.”
