CJI NV Ramana while speaking at the National Law University Convocation rued that no student leader has emerged for the past three decades since the liberalization and added that this was adversely affecting the ‘strengthening’ of democracy.
The ToI article quotes the CJI as saying:
Any keen observer of Indian society would notice that in the past few decades no big leader has emerged from the student community. This appears to be correlated with diminished participation of students in social causes after liberalization…
…It is essential that more and more well-meaning, forward-looking, and upright students like you enter public life. You must emerge as leaders. After all, political consciousness and well-informed debates can steer the nation into a glorious future as envisioned by our Constitution. A responsive youth is vital for strengthening democracy.
It is only in Bharat that student politics is hailed and looked at as ‘strengthening’ democracy. Right-thinking citizens want students to focus on studies, innovate and grow the economy, and excel in their chosen field. As one Twitter user rightly pointed out functional democracies don’t depend on student leaders.
The judiciary should be totally focusing on the speedy dispensation of justice particularly at a time when law & order in the country is facing so many issues and there are several questions around its accountability. Recently, the CJI opined that investigative journalism is vanishing and everything appears rosy. Now, the CJI appears to be rather interested in encouraging campus politics.
The moot question here is whether student leaders really help a democracy. In Bharat, we have seen ‘student leaders’ like Kanhaiya Kumar who take a decade or more to complete their higher studies thereby wasting precious resources of the state which is paid for by the country’s taxpayers. Furthermore, Bharat’s university campuses are highly politicized and polarized where sedition is seen as dissent.
Campus politics is more a communist construct that has little relevance in today’s world. Lalu Prasad Yadav is one such ‘student leader’ whose political career is riddled with scams, minority appeasement, and nepotism. The kind of politics we have seen in universities JNU and Jamia Milia is ample proof that student politics has done nothing to strengthen democracy. If anything, such seditious politics will only weaken democracy and the country’s institutions.
Students, particularly in higher education, should concentrate their energies on contributing positively towards nation-building rather than indulging in polarized politics that has now become the norm in campuses across the country. Precious resources cannot and should not be wasted on the likes of Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid. Student politics has hardly made any positive contribution and democracy should be strengthened by strengthening its institutions beginning with the judiciary that must do away with the collegium system.
(Featured Image Source: Deccan Herald)