Campus  Politics The freedom to dissent - with or without reasons

 Swati Deb

Student politics is nothing new in India. There is no exception about the same even in northeast India. In 1970s and 80s – student politics was in the forefront in Assam and by 1985-86; the All Assam Students Union (AASU) signed an agreement with the then Rajiv Gandhi government and became a political force to reckon with.

In other states in the region too, student bodies like the Naga Students Federation (NSF) and the Khasi Students Union (KSU) and the rest often dominate socio-political issues in the region. So much has been the influence of students’ power in Nagaland that in 1990-91 they influenced chief minister Vamuzo’s “superannuation policy” and the retirement age of Nagaland government employees were brought down to 57 years. Even a fellow regionalist politician B B Lyngdoh, then Meghalaya chief minister, had criticized Vamuzo for giving such “undue importance to students”. In Mizoram, the anguish of students had led to the state DGP Kiran Bedi making an escape to the national capital!

The campus politics visited Indian universities in 2015 and 2016 and the menace or virtue - as one sees it - traveled from Hyderabad to New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and also to Kolkata – wherein students also raised slogans screaming “Manipur maange azadi (Manipur wants freedom)”.

 

Even veteran communist leader Gurudas Dasgupta was convinced that raising such slogans was wrong and anti-national. But the seed of such anti-India sloganeering had ironically traveled from national capital’s very own JNU.

To read the further article please get your copy of Eastrn Panorama April issue @http://www.magzter.com/IN/Hill-Publications/Eastern-Panorama/News/ or mail too contact @easternpanorama.in