People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

SFI-ASA Alliance Sweeps HCU Students Union Poll

THE united Left combine of the Students Federation of India (SFI) and Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) has once again swept the elections to the Hyderabad Central University Students Union (HCUSU) this year. The combine’s candidates won on all the seven central panel posts and secured almost all the councillor posts. The votes polled by different candidates for the central panel posts are given in the table alongside.

This victory is, first and foremost, a vindication of the struggles under the banner of the outgoing students union in which the SFI-ASA had a predominant majority.

Unlike the preceding ABVP led students union, the outgoing union had many achievements to its credit. The foremost was the struggle for protecting the democratic rights of student community on the campus. Every attempt to curb the students’ rights was rebuffed through protests. The Union also intensified the struggle to protest the sale of university lands to private companies and the measures for privatisation of administration. The union also succeeded in ensuring the basic facilities for students including hostel facilities, clean drinking water, better security and so on. Fellowship for the MPhil extension students was a remarkable achievement. Attempts were made to boost the intellectual and academic level of the students through organisation of various seminars, talks and discussions. 

Along with this, as an organisation, the SFI also led various independent struggles and protests on the above issues while continuing its fight against the neo-liberal policies of the central government which are leading to privatisation and commercialisation of education. This also have a tremendous influence on the union election’s verdict.

Through this verdict, the campus community has showed that the unity of secular forces can well better results for various sections of the society in the right spirit of inclusion.   

A significant aspect of this year’s election campaign was that the secular opposition chose to make the SFI-ASA rather than the RSS-ABVP the main targets of their attack. It is another matter that they failed to engage in a meaningful debate on the outgoing union’s performance or put forward an alternative agenda of their own.

Other than the communally charged ABVP which tries to make political gain through organised criminal activities backed by their Hindutva ideology, the pro-Congress National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the BSF-TSA (Telangana Students Association) alliance also contested elections. As usual, the NSUI, which was offline round the year, contested the election mainly with money power backed by their parent party. The BSF-TSA, on the other hand, tried to gain support mainly through the slogan of ‘Jai Telangana.’ But it could not fetch support of even half of the Telangana population on the campus. 

The SFI-ASA alliance sought the students’ support mainly on a positive agenda for the future along with the promise of a peaceful campus free from the curse of communal and other parochial feelings.

The demand for institutional mechanisms for providing better facilities for the students was on the top of the SFI-ASA’s priority list.

With its mandate in these elections, the HCU students have expressed their commitment for a progressive vision for the university --- and that too at a time when the university is increasingly coming under attacks from the right wing forces and the policies of the Congress led UPA government. Building up struggles to turn this vision into a reality is the challenge that lies ahead for the newly elected students union and the progressive student movement in the HCU.