ANDALIB AKHTER
A day after former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad rejected him as a youth leader saying he has already crossed 40, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has become more active in the youths’ politics. Interestingly three central universities in Uttar Padesh have provided him good opportunity to launch his campaign for student politics.
The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Benaras Hindu University (BHU), Allahabad University have been facing student unions crisis for a long time. Protests are going on in the universities for restoration of union. But authorities of the universities are against holding students union elections fearing violence
While Allahabad University has not seen student elections for the last two years, AMU’s Students Union was dissolved in 2007 after the campus was rocked by the murder of a student, unrest and incidents of arson. Benaras Hindu University has not had elections since 1997 when violence erupted during campaign of student union polls.
Rahul Gandhi took full advantage of the sentiment of the students in these universities and met the union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal at his residence along with representatives of the students from these varsities.
All the three universities are politically sensitive and have capacity to influence regional as well as national politics.
With Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal forwarding to the universities
authorities asking them to address the genuine concern of the students, it is most likely that election would be announced soon in these institutions. If it happens, in near future, the whole credit would go to Rahul Gnadhi, who is doing every effort to associate youths to his party.
"Their concerns were taken into account and we certainly feel that students should be an integral part of the democratic processes of the university. Those concerns of course will be conveyed to the universities concerned so they can take forward the agenda of the communities by listening to the voices of the younger generation…," Sibal said after meeting student representatives accompanied by Rahul Gandhi.
Though AMU Act doesn’t allow student to contest election under the banner of any political party, but students here are influenced by one party or the other. The AMU student politics also reflect minority politics in different part of the country and Rahul do no want to miss the opportunity. Several ex- students union leaders are part of Congress now.
The student politics in Allahabad University and BHU also reflect the politics of Utter Pradesh and Bihar. If Rahul party’s student wing National Student Union of India (NSUI) could able to make its presence felt in these high excellence varsities, certainly congress would gain political mileage through youths.