I voted in the Delhi University elections for a reason
The Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) elections are a constant phenomenon in every fresher's first semester at Delhi University, as it was in mine. Last year, in the optimistic window of time when results were out and cut offs were still the stuff of speculation - like most of us, I headed out to North Campus to visit an environment teeming with aspirations. I would stare at the gates of institutions, mouthing their names with a hopeful sense of entitlement. It was a moment of absolute frenzy. Even the twinge of disappointment that arrives when frenzied visions turn into concrete realities didn't dampen the vigour with which I sought the entitlement.
In those moments of uncertainty, when I travelled to North Campus multiple times for admissions, there was something that immediately validated my entrance into university politics. All around me I witnessed the latent buzz of student political wings - picking new recruits, rushing to be the first to leave a lasting impression on freshers like me. Much before I could see myself as a student of Delhi University, they saw me as one. Did I accept this validation? Yes. But with a marked trepidation that would soon become the hallmark of my negotiations with politics throughout my first year.
There is a certain prolonged hyperactivity in the air that persists throughout the first semester concerning the DUSU elections and the individual college elections, which take place simultaneously at DU. The landscape of North Campus is literally littered with pamphlets and posters. The moment we step out of Vishwavidyalaya metro station, we are greeted/goaded (take your pick) by a drone of slogans and candidate names that echo through the streets. Campaigning continues as a ceaseless activity, permeating every aspect of college life from classrooms to canteens. From public campaigning to spontaneous public processions, the university elections are in many ways like a very expensive theatrical trailer that plays annually in the tamasha-laden streets of North Campus, in the same manner as the general elections - much like the most expensive movie production to be made every five years.
However, in my first year, I chose to distance myself from the frenzy. I would close my eyes, block my ears to the palpably present politics that was very hard to ignore. But ignore I did. Come election day, I revelled in the aimlessness granted by a holiday and treated the elections as a phenomenon taking place in an alternate dimension of time and space.
It surprises me that my nonchalance never struck as problematic to me till almost a year later, as I write about it today. Post the elections, I took to indifference the way a moth takes to flame - attracted by the light that eventually consumes it. But there was nothing masterful about maintaining this indifference. This isn't just my story. So many of us did it with such ease. It was as if we were living in a university of our own making, and that's because we probably were.
What is most striking about the apparently comfortable ease with which we disregard university elections is the inherent double standard in the dismissal. Much of the youth today, particularly the urban educated demographic that dominates the DU environment, considers it an act of political irresponsibility to not vote in the general elections or the state assembly elections.
During national or state elections, it is embarrassing for anyone to admit that drowsy eyes kept them from visiting the polling station. These turn into commonplace legitimate excuses when it comes to university politics. I still don't know why. The only explanation I can find is that students, trapped in their bubbles of idealism, somehow believe that student life can be dissociated from the politics that does in fact governs it in countless ways - subtle and otherwise.
We faithfully believe in the idea that college is uniquely defined for every individual, that we get from college exactly what we want from it. For some it may be an age of experimentation, for some others an age of academic exploration or three years of gallivanting. But we forget that even the survival of an idealistic bubble hinges upon its environment. Dry air and excessive pressure can expose the innards of the bubble and render it formless. I lived in a similar bubble of misconception.
It is true that university life is a journey of self-discovery. But even in this deeply personal journey, we are perpetually linked to a larger system -social, political, academic - that defines the world we live in and the conditions of the world in which we seek to chart our lives. It is this understanding that motivated me to vote this year.
The recent history of the Delhi University itself tells us how politically volatile its atmosphere is. the powerful movement against the FYUP eventually led to it being scrapped altogether. Today there is a movement questioning the legitimacy of the newly introduced CBCS system. From supposedly inconsequential movie screenings to significantly visible demands for resignations of people in power, politics is entangled with the everyday lives of university students in innumerable ways. In this world of Delhi University where change is apparently the only constant, students need a legitimate voice to channel their demands - student politics is one of the most important ways of doing it. It's not about having an opinion. It's about pointing out that it is highly problematic to have no opinion at all.
What makes a voice legitimate? The countless people who second the words that are uttered by this voice. Choosing to opt out of the system that nonetheless makes decisions for us is claiming ignorance to a system that offers an opportunity to accommodate our needs. This is not to say that we must turn a blind eye to the problems that exist within the system of student politics today. The student political system today both offers and requires a change. But our cynicism often makes us forget the former in a relentless attempt at pointing out the latter.
Being a part of a system despite its imperfections - this makes the system more accountable and pushes it to rectify its mistakes. When I went for the elections this year, I left with a feeling of empowerment and a recognition that my voice mattered. We flee from the word "politics" to escape the taboo that surrounds it, to avoid the fear that captivates our imagination. But are we not maligning the image of politics by distancing ourselves from it, thus cultivating the same culture of dissociation that we wish never existed?
Don't respond immediately, mull over it. Your response to what I've written isn't half as important as the response that will be expected of you the next time you have an opportunity to vote. Let that response be a conscious one.
After all, man isn't just an animal, he's the only political animal in this world, armed with the strongest tool for change: the power embodied within a singular vote.