Campus credos swing with political fortunes

VADODARA, Nov 5: So you thought they were all there to work for student welfare without any political considerations. Think again. The selfi...

VADODARA, Nov 5: So you thought they were all there to work for student welfare without any political considerations. Think again. The selfish politics that guide the gyrations of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the National Students8217; Union of India the student wings of the BJP and the Congress respectively could well teach their party seniors a thing or two.

If any issue was necessary to highlight their eye for the main chance, it has come with the 27 per cent reservation in medical and engineering seats for members of the socially and educationally backward classes. By holding the policy as correct, the Supreme Court validated the government resolution passed just before the admissions began last year What goes unsaid in the perfectly correct statement above is that the government was led by the RJP and supported by the Congress.

Since its big brother was politically opposed to the ruling alignment, the ABVP strongly opposed the resolution, claiming that it would reduce the number of seats in the general category. The NSUI, predictably, went all out in its support, maintaining that quotas would provide equal educational opportunities to all sections of society.

The ABVP went about trying to bolster its stand by submitting memoranda. organising protest programmes and burning effigies of figures in authority, while the NSUI kept a low profile.

Then the fortunes changed in Gandhinagar; the RJP-Congress combine was routed in the February assembly elections and the BJP came to power. With the swinging of the political pendulum, attitudes changed in the campus as well. As the BJP assumed power, the ABVP assumed the role played by the NSUI during the RJP-Congress regime. And the NSUI did an ABVP.

While the ABVP defends the change in its stance by saying it has to respect the apex court8217;s verdict, the NSUI parrots the ABVP8217;s forsaken line: that reservations will affect the general category seats.

Says ABVP8217;s Mayur Patel, 8220;We have never pressed our demands by going on a rampage, as that would not lead to a solution. We met recently in Ahmedabad to discuss the issue, but we decided not to launch an agitation as it would further hold up the beginning of the semester for those already admitted into college8221;.

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8220;We have even submitted a memorandum to the education minister on this8221;, he says, hastening to add, 8220;But the ABVP8217;s stance hasn8217;t changed8221;.

University general secretary and NSUI leader Prakash Verma, strangely, goes a step further to say that 8220;The BJP government should not have declared reservations at all, since quotas only translated into a loss of seats for the general category students8221;.

Political expediency speaks a new language on the campus.