From: Sukulgunda.com

Time to get rid of Jholey Student Unions?

Our PM Balen recently met with the Vice-Chancellors of our universities at his meeting room in Singha Durbar. The talk of the day was how to get rid of the politically affiliated student unions in universities across the country. None of the Vice-Chancellors voiced their agreement for the jholey student unions but would want an independent student body in our educational institutions because they do want student participation in many of the college's affairs.

Balen is not against student unions; he is against the jholeys burning and breaking things down while interfering with the administration and extorting from students and even the Professors for their own personal gain. We have had student leaders in their 30s and even 40s demanding reforms for students in their twenties, engaging in student politics to build their future political portfolio, while hostels and restrooms smell of nasty stuff and classrooms have broken benches and windows.

If we look back, most of our Gen X old school netas like Gagan Thapa, Yogesh Bhattarai and Ram Kumari Jhakri did climb up the political ladder from Student Politics just like Sherey Dai and many others before them. Most of our major political parties, except for the RSP and the newbies, have more than 100 affiliated organizations, be it students or farmers or sukumbasi, or trade or even ethnic and many more.

On paper, it looks great because these organizations even though affiliated to their mother party, all want to fight for the rights of students, women, youth, workers, taxi drivers and many more who are vulnerable and MARGlNalized.

But in reality, these organizations are just fronts to extort money from schools, businesses and even gobble up government grants so that those in charge can make some dough while climbing up the ranks in their respective political parties.

And what about the students? Not much for them except an opportunity to participate in masal jool-loos and dhoong-haaning against someone for some reason once in a while if you are a Jholey. For non-jholey students, the student unions and the administrators turn a blind eye to their grievances.

Yes, we need student unions in our colleges. The students need to learn governance and even political stuff. We need Student Council Presidents and members and they can sit down with the school officials to work out differences if there are any when it comes to teaching or accomodation or other facilities needed for the personal growth of the students.

But what we have experienced in the past thirty-plus years is that politically affiliated student unions only want to act like the mundrey gundas who want to threaten professors and curse at them and even resort to violence at times to satisfy their own ego or political ambitions.

Our major political parties have found something to fight back against the current government. They cannot fight against transparency, accountability and good governance, but they now have something to make some noise and even resort to vandalism in our universities if the government carries out its mission to get rid of all Jholey student unions in town.

Most of our old school politicians think it is against the Constitution and is a conspiracy to make our country like North Korea. Well, most of us think Balen has the courage and the vision to make us the next Singapore, or in his words, a better Nepal and not a copycat of some other developed nation.

We have finally found a person who seems hell-bent on making things better for the people and the country a heaven, and not work for the dalals and cousins of politicians and hakims. In my personal opinion, the middle path would be to not outright ban Jholey student unions but like I mentioned earlier, just make it a serious crime to destroy anything inside our schools and a ten-year prison term with hard labor from Harka Sampang's guidebook for any assault against any teachers and administrators as well.

Let them field their candidates in student bodies but make sure that any violence, harassment or illegal acts will result not only in suspension but also a prison sentence, which will effectively make them disqualified for any government jobs in the future.

Balen is not worried about confrontations but I think he should not give the old Jholeys any ammunition to fight back and disturb the pace of work going on. We are heading for a productive bureaucracy and eventually we will have universities free of Jholey student unions not by banning them outright but by making sure that only enrolled students participate in student elections.

And we need to have some eligibility requirements to run for the Student Government, one has to be undertaking undergraduate courses on a full-time basis, and a limit that one has to graduate within six years and only the Bachelors' students can run for the Student Government while the Masters' can make some money working as teaching assistants on the side. We can't have 40-year-olds trying to mint some grants for personal gain in the name of providing better facilities or admission or hostel privileges for 18-year-old kids!


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