How Patna University got its groove back

PATNA: You can’t separate students from politics and if the students happen to be of Patna University (PU), then politics is the pivot round which they revolve. Just take a look at the long, illustrious list of political leaders prepared in the crucible of PU politics, and it will be clear that a ban on students union since the last 25 years is to the detriment of the state as well as the nation’s public life.

Former Lok Sabha speaker Bali Ram Bhagat and former union deputy finance minister Tarkeshwari Sinha were active members of PU Students Union in the 1940s. PU’s high watermark was, of course, 1974, when, at the call of Sarvodaya leader Jayaprakash Narayan, today’s firmament of top leaders — Nitish Kumar , Lalu Prasad, Ashwini Choubey and Sushil Modi, among a host of others — plunged into politics. In fact, Lalu, Bihar Congress ex-chief Ram Jatan Sinha, state minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey and another ex-BPCC boss Anil Kumar Sharma have all served as presidents of PU Students Union. Nitish was actively associated with Bihar College of Engineering Students Union and also with the JP movement. Dy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (both BJP) were general secretary and assistant general secretary of PU Students Union.

Patna’s students’ movement, in fact, has been a force to reckon with ever since the 1930s when All India Students Federation (AISF) came into existence. Some of India’s most visible and towering thinkers like Syed Shahabuddin, Chandrashekhar Singh and Indradeep Singh were all actively involved with AISF.

‘‘ Unfortunately, no student of PU has been offered a ticket this time,’’ says NSUI leader Barun Kumar Sharma. With no students’ union for the last 25 years, students fail to obtain a platform to project their leadership. ‘‘ Sadly, today’s political class is more interested in projecting its own scions,’’ says student leader Sudhir Singh.