Understanding Karnataka’s 3-Decade-Long Ban on Campus Politics

For close to three decades, student union elections have been banned in Karnataka.

(Photo: Lijumol Joseph/ The Quint)

In the first week of March, around 50,000 farmers marched a distance of 180km from Nashik to Mumbai to gherao the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. The massive rally is considered to be an iconic political movement the country saw this year. Forty-four-year-old Vijoo Krishnan, Joint Secretary of All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), is credited with inspiring the farmers for this historic march.

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For Vijoo, his days as the students’ union president in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), from 1998 to 1999, played a huge role in shaping his political career and organising the march.

Before becoming a full-time activist, his first job as a lecturer had taken him to Bengaluru’s St Joseph’s College in 2005. Here, he was in for a cultural shock.

Days after joining the college, this former student leader realised there were no student union in his college. Soon enough he learnt that student union elections have been banned in Karnataka since 1989.

“‘When politics decides your future, decide what your politics must be’ and ‘study and struggle’ were slogans that shaped our future in JNU. But my students didn’t have student unions,” Vijoo recollected.

Keeping Politics Out of Campus

(Photo: Malavika Balasubramanian/The Quint)

Even during 2013, when the student politics, especially that in JNU, was shaping nation’s political discourse, politics was kept out of the classrooms in Karnataka. In fact, between 2001 and 2016, there were no student representatives in Bangalore University’s academic council, which made the policies for students.

In 2016, when students were allowed in the academic council, there were only five students in a council of 54 members.

So why has Karnataka, which has produced several influential political leaders, including a prime minister, shied away from student politics? The answer lies in the violent political history of the state in the 1980s.

From Student Leader to a Critic

B Somashekar, former higher education minister of Karnataka, was among those who vehemently opposed student union elections in the state.

Ironically, he was a student leader in 1970s.

“It is still a matter of pride for me that I was the first student union president of Mysuru unversity, from a scheduled caste. I worked hard as a student leader and reached that position in 1974. But on the union’s inaugural day, I was beaten up by upper caste student leaders who didn’t want me as the president,” Somashekar told The Quint.

In 1996, when he became the higher education minister under the JD(U) government, he says he was reminded of his scars. “By then, student politics (union elections) was banned by the government, but elections continued using loopholes in the law. Then, I changed the rules of universities, and union elections were ended for good,” he added.

When asked why someone who has been a student leader would turn against politics in campus, he said the caste-based violence had “destroyed the ideals of the student politics”.

But the crackdown on the student politics in the state had begun more than a decade ago before Somashekar became the higher education minister.

The Series of Court Orders

Several leaders in Karnataka politics like DK Shivakumar, BK Hariprasad, Shobha Karndlaje and Roshan Baig owe their political careers to their days as student leaders in the 1970s and the 1980s.

The student unions in Karnataka had strong influence over the university’s policies during those years. Student agitations against fee hikes and other university policies were common and effective.

But the student political parties were affiliated to the major political ones. This ensured that conflict between parties resulted in spats in college campuses.

A retired faculty member from government arts and science college in Bengaluru, on the condition of anonymity, told The Quint that one time, a violent protest broke out in the campus over some statement made two politicians. “I don’t recall the particulars, but a Congress leader had made a statement against a Janata party leader. Soon, some slogans were raised, and then there were clashes,” he said.

As the union elections had become an extension of the electoral politics, the parties started pumping money and muscle into the campus, and soon, campus politics became violent,

“I have witnessed elements of the underworld entering the college, on behalf of the ruling party, to attack candidates ahead of the elections. It was not like violence took place often and in every college, but there were enough incidents to make case against campus politics,” added the professor.

By end of the 1989, there were several lower court rulings against the incidents of violence in college campuses, and then, the government headed by Veerendra Patil issued an order banning party-based union elections in campuses.

The Era of Syndicates

Although the government banned student wings of major political parties from contesting campus elections in 1989, the union elections didn’t stop in several colleges.

After students protested demanding elections, the syndicate system was introduced.

Student political parties, like National Student Union of India (NSUI), Students Federation of India (SFI), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Vidyarthi Janata Dal (VJD), were replaced by syndicates.

A syndicate consisted of a group of students contesting for the various posts in the students’ union. On paper, these syndicates were not affiliated to any party. On the ground, however, the reality was different, remembers Prakash, who was part of the SFI while studying in Bengaluru University.

“Syndicates were formed by the student wings of political parties, and once again, the issues concerning students were overshadowed by electoral politics. While the Left was not strong in the campuses, members of the other three parties continued to clash over the elections,” he said.

According to him, the efforts of those who campaigned to retain the student elections, at least in the form of syndicates, were ruined by the occasional incidents of violence.

“They (university authorities) were looking for a reason to shut down the syndicate system as well. Citing some incidents of violence, it was eventually ended by 1997,” said Prakash, who is now part of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).

The Dead-Ends and Lack of Political Will

The Quint, during its research, learnt that even though there was opposition in the campuses against the government order in 1989 banning student union election and the complete shutdown in the late 90s, they were not contested in the court at any point.

The efforts to bring back campus politics back is strongly opposed by many. Those in favour lack the political will.

N Prabhudev, former vice chancellor of Bangalore University, said politics will be a distraction for students. “Bringing back politics to classrooms will bring back the violence as well. Students will lose their focus on studies, so we have strongly opposed anytime a proposal has been made to bring back student union elections,” he said.

Higher education ministers from all three major parties, during the last decade, have refused to bring back student union elections.

Even those who support the idea of bringing politics back to campuses have not taken a strong stand. Roshan Baig, MLA and a former minister in the Congress government, said he would support to bring back the student politics “if there are any campaigns”, but didn’t comment on starting a campaign for the same.