Saturday, March 12, 2011

DONT YOU SMELL SOMETHING WRONG?

I am one of those few students who have had the opportunity of
studying at  both Tri Chandra College (few months) and Kathmandu
University. The difference is striking . Many may point to the huge
difference in the fees that the two institute charge as a cause. That
may be a reason but the other major factor is the politics that
affects both the institution.
When you enter into Tri Chandra you cannot ignore the big boards of
political figures like Prachanda or Madan Bhandari welcoming you. That
surprised me. Are they so big a scientist to be there?  A step of few
leaders of the fellow student unions to please their senior comrades
has given the educational institution an ugly political look. Once you
enter into the college arena you can feel numerous unknown
people(obviously these are party affiliated student leaders)  shaking
hand with you and the funny thing is they may do  it even twice or
thrice to you in a single day. They don’t attend class regularly or in
most of the cases not at all (that’s why they have the time to discuss
politics and shake hands with every students).Silly thing is, student
politics is taken as a footstep to senior party politics. How about
the media? They constantly accuse politics in Colleges as a major
factor for degrading educational standards. On the contrary, when it
comes to student union election they portray it as a “mini election”
for the major parties to check their strength on ground.
Kathmandu University has clearly stated in its rules that no student
union affiliated to political parties shall be entertained. At least
that was among the points that I signed while I got admitted . There
are no such boards of political figures neither you can see offices of
such student wings. It clearly has a provision of a Student Welfare
Council, were members are elected among the class representatives
(i.e. one who have won from their respective class commonly known as
CR).This policy certainly discourages those sort of leaders who don’t
attend classes and later fight for the place in the student council.
The rules were broken though. I have two good examples to back it up.
When Girija Prasad Koirala, the then president of Nepali Congress,
died a notice was stuck on the notice board of the university gate
under the authority of Nepal Student Union –Kathmandu University wing.
Everybody saw it. The rules were broken. It seems as if the rules had
changed. Sadly, I didn’t know it or simply I don’t want  to come in
terms with it. Second one is related to the recent visit of Dr.Baburam
Bhattarai and the other fellow comrade(I forgot his name) of UCPN
Maoist. I too was interested in listening to him. A learned man and a
celebrated engineer himself  I hoped it to be fruitful. When I was to
enter the auditorium  it was clear the program was a political one
organized by the student union close to the Maoists popularly known as
“krantikaris”. I turned around and returned. How easy have we made for
the leaders to forget the rules? An individual is greater than a
University? Shame on us who attended!  If the rule is obsolete why
don’t simply throw it away rather than breaking it more than seldom.
Last Tuesday we had the student welfare council election. Two of my
friends stood up for the post of CR from my class. To my knowledge
they are merely interested or involved in active pro party politics.
At the time of election, the environment turns so ironic that they had
to have a backing from at least a political student wing. Getting
substantial post in the Student Welfare Council, is impossible until
you back a political wing or vice versa.
I felt sad and remained absent in the election. I can’t simply blame
my friends. Problem lies somewhere else. Slowly but surely we are
taking the wrong step by allowing such things to happen freely and go
unnoticed.  Now the former students who were the leaders of such
political student wings roam around the University during the election
trying to influence the voting pattern. After a decade we shall have
many more such “leaders” fighting for influence. Then we may have to
allocate a week for the election to the contrary of a single day in
the present day situation. The most troubling thing is I heard
teachers influencing students to vote to a certain political wing. One
of my friends reportedly received SMS from a fellow teacher to vote a
certain way. How fair is that? We all are hungry for power and
influence. The student unions create such atmosphere that we cannot
account for consensus in a class of 60.How can they suggest their
senior party leaders to form a government of consensus?.
It’s hard to create and sustain a university of caliber of as ours.
The result of politicization of the Student Council has shown its
obvious result. The University has been padlocked  since the election
.This is just one of the few problems that shall arise. In this path,
we shall surely reach a day where the VC, Registrar, Controller all
are from various political backing. Professors shall be hired in terms
of their political belongings and than we shall slide back once and
for all.
People may question me, how can the students be made politically aware
without making them involved in such pro party politics. They give me
example of various universities having pro party student election. The
problem I see is why do we always have to follow others. Why can’t we
lead by examples? If we want political awareness, why can’t we hold
political debates bringing politicians from world around. American
Universities holds debate between the candidates running for the post
of president. One of the Universities even invited the Iranian
President  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a debate. Why can’t we bring three
leaders of top parties and hold a heated debate regarding the
education policy they have neglected so easily? That way we shall be
politically aware and in fact ahead of other institutions which simply
hold a propaganda style one dimensional pro party conference with
senior party leaders. Maybe we come to realize that only few Nepalese
leaders have the quality to withstand such debates with a highly rated
academia.
We all are students and we all have the same agenda. We want quality
education .That’s it. We are being broken down into different fringes
due to the selfishness of political parties. Is there something called
pro communist physics or pro capitalist chemistry. No! So, why do we
have to be affiliated to one? We are surrendering our precious time
listening to the propaganda of our top leaders saying students should
now take the charge of the country. What they simply want us to be is
to be ready to block the roads when they don’t have the government .
Gosh , I recall Prachanda saying he wants to turn Universities to
Barracks. The students listened and clapped, and we revolt when we
feel questions are tough or when the exam centers are too tight. Such
are we into the shell of politics and power. We have forgotten what’s
right and what’s wrong.
Kathmandu University, I thought took a brave step and sought a new
system of remaining away from politics. Nobody cared of it when it was
small and in it early days. Now that it has grown and has turned
influential everyone wants a share of the pie. I have begun to smell
something wrong. We too are falling prey of dirty politics. We should
be aware of it right now .Small but irreversible changes shall hurt us
big in future. Otherwise, one day we shall be the same as Tri Chandra
were no entrance tests are taken, professors don’t come at time and
the student union elections stops the planned syllabus. Then the
experts shall flood in the op-ed with articles as much like they do
now commenting about the status of Tribhuvan University.It shall be
too late by then.

5 comments:

  1. I am a student of KU and I totally agree on this...worked as an eyeopener for me actually..

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  2. yeah, nicely written, however i sense you are not giving the entire information, it's your choice. it's really so bad that we can only hope and pray it gets better. you should mention more about how students are influenced by seniors, teachers, or others more, if ever you write about this again.

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  3. @samip
    most of the above was written during the earlier part of the strike u know.....and i thought the 19-19 thing got to be the reason....that time i didnt have the info on the things that u pointed at otherwise i would hav written it out but since the strike has prolonged i do think there is something more of a reason than what we see in the surface,,,,,ya u are right!

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  4. student politics isnt even an issue here, its all due to the new government formation, u do get what im saying, dont you?

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  5. well "government formn" ..i didnt think that hard...but i thought enough to reach till VC and the registrar....btw when shall the college open???? we can finish some coffee anlyzing these stuffs hehe!

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