As the Tribhuvan University prepares to conduct a vote on March 18 to elect representatives of student unions in over 1,000 colleges across the country, campuses have been caught up in election fever. Student aspirants have intensified their campaigns to be elected office bearers or members of Free Student Union (FSU) in their colleges. Yet the ailments that afflicted these elections in the past are starting to crop up again. Despite being the election to elect student representatives in colleges, the campaign, lobbying and rivalry go much beyond the students and colleges.

Major political parties are intensely involved, so much so that the factional rivalry in a political party is often reflected in the FSU polls. Senior politicians have been lobbying to get students close to them elected. Political parties have assigned central level leaders to distribute tickets to students aspiring to get elected as FSU representatives. For instance, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba formed a committee led by Kishor Singh Rathaur to help the candidates. But the faction under Shekhar Koirala has fielded separate panels challenging the official candidates in different colleges, saying that the pro-Deuba groups were giving tickets only to those loyal to them. The situation is no different in other parties like the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre).

The Nepal Student Union (NSU), the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) and the All Nepal Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) officially work as student wings of the Congress, the UML and the Maoist Centre respectively. The mother parties have the final say in the selection of candidates in elections and the overall operation of the organisations. The students have no option but to choose from among the candidates fielded by political parties. Thus the student leaders are loyal more to their political masters than to the students they supposedly represent. In this way, political parties’ constant meddling has tarnished the image of student unions. As a result, the unions are seen as proxy organisations of political parties.

Another big concern is student unions’ involvement in vandalism, arson, threats and other dubious acts. On Wednesday, a group of students padlocked the Office of the Principal of the TU to protest against the candidate nomination process. A candidate in Ratna Rajyalaxmi (RR) Campus was attacked by rival groups. Such incidents of violence have been reported from other districts too in the past couple of days. Padlocking university offices, attacking not only rival groups but also university teachers and officials has become the norm. The student unions can justify their existence only if they are actively involved in academic stuff like intellectual debates, research on vital issues such as working with AI, and coping with climate change—all of which enrich learning and contribute to society. Unfortunately, they have come to be known more for the violence and vandalism they perpetuate.

The student unions, in their current avatar, are fast losing relevance. To start with, the unions must be detached from political parties and regular students should get to pick their election candidates. Only then will these elections produce the kind of results conducive for the growth of a healthy academic culture and for the development of tomorrow’s leaders.