The Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) polls ended last week. One has been seeing these polls for 40 years now and have witnessed change in its cadence from being ideologically driven to caste driven. This change in character set in after the late Education Minister Arjun Singh allowed reservation for the other backward classes (OBCs) in the higher education institutions (HEIs).
This initiative to make certain disadvantaged sections of society educationally able came with many benefits. It increased the number of seats in the colleges which had not expanded in a very longtime. Once the seats were expanded, also came the fund flow to create adequate infrastructure to accommodate a larger number of students. Since the number of students went up so did in proportion go up the vacancy for teachers, opening fresh job opportunities in HEIs, which was facing stagnation for a very longtime? However, like in any chemically purifying process, while we get a distilled product, it also leaves behind an unwelcome muck.
Similarly it happens in the process of social change too. In the present form DUSUpolls, which has needed intervention of the High Court, is part of that slush, an unwelcome outcome of a very welcome social initiative. The DUSU elections today are tutorial into caste-based politics, perpetuated by both the major participating parties. The Delhi University administration, which unfairly came in for reprimand from the High Court last year, cannot be expected to be playing a provost and executing proctorial duties in managing a poll which has investments running into several crores of rupees. The DU administration did well this year to keep proceedings fairly under check which led the polls timely conclusion.
Coming back to student politics, these polls are like a bottle of Banta (aerated water drinks with a very weak fizz). It’s just been a week, and everybody seems to have started forgetting about the polls which had virtually led to the suspension of academic activities for a week in the run-up to the polls. Does that mean that the Gen Z, which is causing stuttering across the globe, has accepted and embraced the culture perpetuated during the university polls? That’s not true as a close study of the result shows that resistance to this culture is surely and truly building up. First the turn out in the elections were very poor, a mere 39.45 percent after such a high profile campaign.
This low voter turnout reflects towards the fact that the majority of the students do not participate in these polls. Coming to those participating in the polls, a large section of students this time have voted against the tone and tenor of the campaign. If the votes polled by the parties backed by Marxist ideology and also those taking the NOTA (none of the above) route are put together, it sounds alarming bells. On the post of president and vice president, between 10 to 15 percent voted against the mainstream parties.
This number sharply climbed up for the posts of secretary and joint secretary taking the figures close to 25 percent. The issue is grave as this block of students can be identified as more studious than the mainstream parties’ candidates who come to the campus (in many instances taking admission in the post-graduate programme in Buddhist Studies) to contest and use this as a license for a higher level politics.
On the surface this may seem to be indicating apathy but these figures could be revealing a different kind of sentiment too, a silent but firm rejection of politics-as-usual. Many of these dissenting voters, as already described, are more academically focused than the candidates who treat DUSU as a steppingstone to higher office. Their choice reflects disillusionment with established political mechanisms and a demand for something more substantive than slogans and patronage networks.
The fact that these trends emerge among educated urban youth, who are often considered bellwethers of societal change, suggests that the disaffection could ripple beyond campus walls. While OBC reservations brought undeniable benefits in equity and institutional growth, they also spurred a shift toward caste-based mobilization that dominates today’s student politics. Yet the poor turnout and rising protest vote indicate that India’s youth are not passively accepting this trajectory.
Instead, they are signaling a desire for cleaner, issue-based politics. The DUSU elections thus encapsulate a puzzle where traditional political forces try to co-opt the campus, a new generation is quietly but unmistakably challenging the status quo.
The story is written by Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice
