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Kolkata: Is the
state election commission equipped to monitor college elections?
This is the question being asked after the Calcutta High Court
asked West Bengal's chief electoral officer (CEO) to monitor
college elections in the politically volatile state.
Stakeholders, irrespective of political affiliations, feel the job
would be tough for the election commission which lacks the
infrastructure to conduct college elections.
The high court last week ordered that all students' elections in
colleges in the state be held under the supervision of the chief
electoral officer. The court also allowed the CEO to seek
assistance of the state Director General of Police (DGP) for
conducting the elections in a peaceful and fair way.
The court said the elections be held thus till the seven member
panel appointed by the state government drafts the guidelines for
students' elections.
The significant verdict comes in the wake of a rise in campus
violence since the change of political guard last year.
"It's true there is a concern regarding the rise in campus
violence. But I really don't know how the Election commission will
be able to do it as the students don't reside in colleges. And
above all, it doesn't look good if police are deployed in colleges
for student elections," Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhuri, political
science professor in Rabindra Bharati University, told IANS.
Politics and campus violence have been synonymous with college
life in West Bengal, and these peaked during the tumultuous days
of Naxalism in the 1970s. But after a brief pause, the state seems
to be rewinding back to anarchic days of student politics.
Although the campus politics during the 70s were driven by
idealism and dreams of revolution, student politics - which along
with rural panchayat bodies are considered to be a gateway and
cradle of state politics - has graduated now into a culture of
heckling teachers, political interference and importing goons from
outside the campus to win the elections.
The importance of student politics in state affairs can be gauged
from the fact that both former chief minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee and incumbent Mamata Banerjee, as also important
leaders of both the opposition Left Front and ruling Trinamool,
had their baptism in politics through student politics.
Since the assembly elections last year - which witnessed the end
of the 34-year rule of the Left Front in the hands of the
Trinamool Congress - assault on college principals and clashes
between student unions affiliated to Trinamool and the Left have
been a routine affair.
Three incidents which had gained state-wide attention were
assaults on the principals of Raiganj College, a college in
Birbhum, and Majdia College. In the first two cases, Trinamool was
allegedly responsible, while in Majdia a Left-aligned students
union SFI (affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist) was
accused of assaulting the principal.
The ruling Trinamool Congress refused to comment on the order but
expressed astonishment on how the chief electoral officer will be
able to conduct polls in various universities and colleges across
the state.
"What will be the process in which the elections will be conducted
in the colleges and how will it cover all the colleges across the
state is a big question," said Baishwanor Chattopadhay, chairman,
Trinamool Chatra Parishad.
When IANS enquired about the infrastructure and plan of action for
conducting college polls, state CEO Sunil Gupta declined to
comment, saying he was yet to receive the court order.
The legal verdict seems to have provided the opposition Marxists
with a golden opportunity of cornering the government on the issue
of deteriorating law and order.
"The verdict shows the lack of democratic atmosphere to hold
college polls. I know the verdict is quite different but I will
say in such an abnormal situation such kind of verdict is needed,"
CPI-M leader Sujan Chakroborty told IANS.
However, renowned economist and academician Dipankar Dasgupta
feels college elections under the supervision of the state CEO
aided by the police is the best possible way to curb campus
violence.
(Pradipta Tapadar can be contacted at pradipta.t@ians.in)
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