Nursery for leaders of tomorrow, PU has nurtured many

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 23

Panjab University has served as a nursery for many leaders who rose to become MLAs, MPs and even ministers. Established in Lahore and later shifted to Chandigarh, the PU has over 200 colleges affiliated to it.

Many political leaders, including a former external affairs minister, late Sushma Swaraj; former Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, former Chandigarh MP Satya Pal Jain, Congress youth leader Brinder Dhillon are a few names who were nurtured by the university.

While the leaders were associated with various political parties on the campus, most of them say that the PU taught them their first lesson in politics and made them tall enough to venture out into corridors of Vidhan Sabha and Parliament. “The credit of our political maturity goes to Panjab University itself,” said Kuljit Nagra, former MLA and ex-PUSU campus student leader.

The university is meant to incorporate ideas for the betterment of society as a whole.

— Manish Tewari, Chandigarh MP

Manish Tewari, Chandigarh MP and former NSUI national president, said the university was not just to train the students for democracy but also serves a bigger purpose. “The student leaders should not stay limited to campus issues. The university is meant to incorporate ideas for the betterment of society as a whole,” he said. The MP also said while other institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) allowed mainstream political leaders to come to the campus and hold meetings even in hostels, discouragement by the PU authorities regarding this seemed unfair.

“During our times, student politics used to be centred around students itself. There was negligible political interference by the mainstream political parties. Prior to 2010, one can see that most of the university elections were won by student parties instead of parties aligned with the mainstream political parties,” said Kuljit Singh Nagra. Nagra also believes that the present politics on the campus has suffered a decline and not many students are interested in raising voices for genuine issues of campus and even national importance.

Malwinder Kang, MP from Anandpur Sahib, who had been at the university council helm for two consecutive terms as president, believes that the Lyngdoh Committee’s recommendations, which were implemented in 2006, have dented the prospects of student leaders who want to venture into active politics for the betterment of society. “Some recommendations are very stringent which should be reviewed,” Kang said.