Govt to form panel to bring back student polls, says DK Shivakumar

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar announced on  Wednesday the government’s plans to reintroduce student elections in the state, which were banned way back in 1989, by forming a committee to suggest the next steps. 

Speaking at a Constitution Day event organised by the Karnataka Congress, Shivakumar argued that campus elections create
leadership. 

“Recently, (Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to me and Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) asking us to think about restarting student elections,” Shivakumar said. “I’m announcing today that we’ll form a small committee and seek a report on this.”

Karnataka banned campus elections in 1989 following a few violent incidents, resulting in the disappearance of student bodies affiliated to political parties from colleges. 

Shivakumar, who is also the Karnataka Congress president, said former student leaders will be “brought together to study the pros and cons” of bringing back campus
elections. 

“There were many criminal activities taking place back then. We’ll see how we can conduct (student) elections by regulating such criminal activities,” Shivakumar said. 

Shivakumar recalled his days as a student leader in Sri Jagadguru Renukacharya College. 

“When I was in my final-year degree, I got a ticket because of my political activism,” Shivakumar said, referring to his first election in 1985 from the erstwhile Sathnur constituency when he, all of 23, went up against H D Deve Gowda and lost. 

“That’s how student leadership was at the time. Such leadership has gone today. College elections have stopped,” Shivakumar said. 

“Many of us came through student leadership. The college election was like a big movement,” Shivakumar said. “Leadership used to grow. Leaders were created.”

‘Word power’

In a loaded political statement, Shivakumar said that “word power is world power”, referring to fulfilling
promises.

“Keeping our word is the biggest power. Be it a judge, the president, me or anybody else, we must keep our word,” he said.

This came amidst speculation that he wants Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to keep his word by making way after the halfway mark of the government.