TN college campuses immune to poll fever

Chennai: Chief ministers of three states – C N Annadurai of Tamil Nadu, Brahmananda Reddy of Andhra Pradesh and K C Reddy of Mysore (Karnataka) – honed their skills on this campus. Three prominent candidates in this election – law minister Duraimurugan, higher education minister Govi Chezhian and AIADMK's former minister D Jayakumar – were alumni of this college.But on Thursday afternoon, discussions on the campus of Pachaiyappa's College on Poonamallee High Road were about anything but politics. The campus and its students seemed untouched by election fever. The situation was the same at Presidency College and Annamalai University in Chidambaram, which were once the launchpad for students to enter politics. Senior leaders, including P Chidambaram, Vaiko and Thol Thirumavalavan, are alumni of Presidency College. Blame it on the ban on student union elections on campuses, focus on skill-based education and rise of private colleges. "Only Kerala conducts campus elections properly. That's why youth leaders emerge from campuses in that state," said Students' Federation of India (SFI) state president S Mirudhula. "Here, there is no representation for students in any of the academic bodies in the universities. College hostels were shifted outside the city to prevent students from taking part in political activities. And private college students fear action from college managements," she added.Retired principal of Presidency College Pramananda Perumal said the college stopped student union elections from 2015 after the election-related violence. "Political parties misused student elections to show their strengths and resulted in violence. So, we stopped it," he said. By and large, elections were banned in all colleges in TN from 2015. Senior politician K S Radhakrishnan, who entered politics through the Congress-affiliated students' union in Annamalai University and Madras Law College, said political parties used to train young students. Annadurai, Kamaraj, M Kalyanasundaram and P Ramamurthy encouraged students to enter politics in the 1960s and 1970s."The rise of personality cult, hero worship and dynasty politics affected the entry of student leaders in politics in the 1980s. Now, youth wing leaders of many parties are in their 50s and 60s," said Radhakrishnan. "Dravidian parties, though they themselves came from student movements, did not invest in a new crop of leaders in colleges and universities," said Ramu Manivannan, former HoD of politics and political administration, University of Madras. "Dravidian parties and private colleges are responsible for the lack of political culture. This has resulted in youth seeing film actors such as Vijay as leaders," he added.