WEST BENGAL Education Minister Bratya Basu had drawn up a plan to curb increasing campus violence in consultation with Chairman Sugata Marjit.  A seven-member committee, headed by the vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, Prof. Suranjan Das, has been formed to draft the final election code, which will be uniformly implemented in all colleges.

The state government has decided that it wouldn’t implement the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee considering the practical situation in the state. Neither can it allow students’ unions to sever ties with their affiliate parties as recommended by the committee. Following an order of the Supreme Court, a committee, headed by former chief election commissioner JM Lyngdoh in 2006, was formed to recommend measures for peaceful students’ union elections. The Supreme Court made it mandatory for every state to implement the recommendations for smooth election.

The Left Front government failed to implement the report. Both the SFI and the TMCCP opposed the move to implement the recommendations since they emphasised on regular attendance and good academic record as a criteria for the students to take part in the election process. Around 200 colleges conducted elections this year in February. No major changes were implemented .The violence occurred on campuses, which according the Higher Education Minister Prof. Bratya Basu is nothing but backlash of the earlier Left Front government's promotion of dal-tantra inside the institutes.

The six-member committee, headed by the former Election Commissioner Sri. J.M. Lyngdoh was appointed by the MHRD on the direction of the Supreme Court to study the diverse specifics of student union elections. After its regional meetings for public discussions in Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Delhi, and considering the views of various parties, in May 2006, the committee submitted its report to the Ministry for Human Resources Development as well as to the Supreme Court of India. The committee, as per the order of the Supreme Court, was mandated to examine the alleged criminalisation in student union elections, financial transparency and limits of expenditure involved in such elections, eligibility criteria for candidates contesting in such elections including the maximum age limits and minimum standards of academic performance, and the need to establish a forum to address grievances and disputes arising out of such elections.

Lyngdoh committee differed with the Kerala High Court judgments and even the primary observations of the Supreme Court, and arrived at the conclusion that the ban on political activities of students shall amount to an infringement of the fundamental right to form associations, freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the Constitution. Lyngdoh Committee report is indubitably a setback for the so-called apolitical intelligentsia who tried to eliminate the democratic culture from the academic campuses in their eagerness to dance to the tunes of certain vested sections. It is the capitation fee colleges and reactionary political ideologies that are afraid of students participating in political activities.

The Lyngdoh committee recommendations designed to streamline the election process were broadly welcomed in the academic domain. The committee not only entertained the argument that the academic excellence was an eligibility criterion for contesting the elections but even rejected the High Court finding that allowed the education institutions to prohibit political activities within the college campus and forbid students from organising or attending meetings other than the official ones within the college campus. It is ideal that students are involved in healthy campus politics to promote progressive ideas. To ban the students union means destroying creative potentialities and crushing democratic rights of students.

On the other hand, promotion of such political activities in the academic campus leads to violence and aggression. Students involved in union activities are not eligible for appearing in the examination in the proper way. In fact, by allowing political activities in the campus affects the sanity of the academic atmosphere. Criminalisation of student elections is to be curbed. The new committee recommendations will be very significant for maintenance of peace in the academic institutions. The Left parties may not accept the denial of political rights of the students in the academic institutions even though most of the college unions are not in their hands.