Kathmandu: In October 2020, Prem Chalaune, an assistant professor of sociology at Tribhuvan University, was brutally assaulted on the university campus by students affiliated with Nepal Student Union (NSU), a student wing affiliated with Nepali Congress. A total of six student leaders attacked Chalaune with a metal rod.
Critically injured, Chalaune sustained serious injuries in his head, chest and thighs. The assistant professor was admitted for treatment for a month.
In December 2022, inside the premises of Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus in Kathmandu, students affiliated with All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU) clashed using khukuri and other sharp weapons over a dispute over student union election. The clash had left seven injured.
In March 2023, student leaders of the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), a student wing of the CPN-UML, and the students affiliated with the CPN (Unified Socialist) clashed with khukuri in broad daylight.
Later in July, police arrested Nepal Student Union (NSU) Morang President Saroj Pokharel for his alleged involvement in smearing black soot on the face of Purbanchal University Service Commission Chairman, Mahesh Dahal.
In Nepal’s universities and public campuses, student leaders affiliated with different student-wing organizations of major political parties are behaving like goons, at times, but they are always defended or protected by the mother parties.
In Chalaune’s case, the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led cabinet last July decided to drop charges against assailants linked to Nepali Congress. Despite a pending attempted murder case in Kathmandu District Court, Prime Minister Dahal defended the case withdrawal, claiming it was an old case and Chalaune’s health had already improved.
He publicly defended the assailants, showing no empathy toward Chalaune, who was still in the process of recovery, and remains so.
Back then, the Dahal government was supported by the Nepal Congress, the party to which the attackers were affiliated.
The cabinet’s decision at the time was based on the Ministry of Law’s recommendation. Then Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dhanraj Gurung went even further than PM Dahal, defending the attackers. “He [Chalaune] exacerbated the issue by breaking the padlock placed by those affiliated with NSU,” Gurung said, accusing Chalaune of removing BP Koirala’s biography, a founder of Nepali Congress, from the sociology curriculum, inciting student violence.
Gurung, one of the vice chairs of the Nepali Congress, rose in Nepali politics through student politics, as he served as the President of NSU in 1997.
According to a former student leader, political leaders maintain a two-faced approach to preserve public universities and campuses as peaceful zones. “I won’t name them, but today’s leaders also ascended from student politics through vandalism, aggression, and assaults against professors. They seemed more like goons than students during their student politics days.”
All major political parties in Nepal have their student wings, which regularly, or at some point have resorted to vandalism, aggression, or assault.
“Student organization in itself is not a wrong platform. It is a grassroot platform that teaches us to perform our duty as per the constitutional and legal parameters. Whether or not we can operate on the same modality and morality applicable 10-15 years ago is another topic of discussion,” said Sunita Baral, former chair of All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU).
The controversies that surround the student union’s activities have always created chaos. Speaking on the same, Baral said, “Not being able to provide a kind of permanence in practice or by student unions is one aspect. By permanence in practice I mean … for example, the central leadership instructs the student wings to stop padlocking any educational institute or university. But, on a central or district level or any other situation, adopting this new practice could be difficult as such activities that were done some five-six years ago are still seen.”
“If we are talking about cases that happened years ago, at times, the morality of the party clashes with individual beliefs and the way to resolve it when students and their leaders are willing to come to a conclusion along with the educational institute and decide what is the ‘right’ thing to do. When I was representing earlier, the student wing of CPN-UML, had decided to never padlock the educational institutes and we followed it strictly,” added Baral.
Romus Khatiwada, a leader with ANNFSU, emphasized on determining their priority areas and conducting activities accordingly as the student movement, which is being criticized from all sides, is unable to present itself in a timely manner.
“Education would be result-oriented if universities and courses could be designed and implemented based on regional needs. The movement should focus on this. Only by ending commercialization in education can we give the right direction to education. For that, private schools need to be turned into cooperative schools. Then we can proceed through our policy of communalization and gradual nationalization.”
“The main task of the student movement should be academic growth. There is a saying that where the rulers are traders, the people remain poor. Today, public interest sectors like education and health have become the most profitable business. Ironically, the leaders of the party who hold progressive views and have been associated with the left movement for a long time are the direct and indirect investors. There is political corruption in the field of education due to the leaders who are at the important policy-making level of the state and the student movement should be opposed to the looting that is going on under some political guise. If the voices of opposition are heard somewhere, then the student leaders are used to suppress them, or the situation where financial transactions are ended is a matter that the student movement is thinking about most seriously,” said Khatiwada.
“Goods can be imported based on the required quality, but political leadership cannot be imported from anywhere. Political leaders are created in the nation, hence, a national product produced by the current youth student movement. When showing incidents of strikes, lockouts, and vandalism in universities and colleges, it has often been revealed that even though they show academic and academic demands, it is only an excuse. The actual game is connected to commission, which is a no brainer. This student movement is a cancer within itself. Just as the body treats the disease within itself, the student movement should also treat this cancer by itself. An organized and purposeful national movement against the distortions and anomalies that exist today is indispensable. And that work can be done only by an organized student movement,” he added.
“After decentralizing the entire political system and management, the country has reached its 1st decade of federalism. But Tribhuvan University should also say that Kathmandu-centered education should be autonomously created through decentralization in all seven provinces, which is also the primary topic of the student movement. The student movement should be serious about implementing some of the rights guaranteed in the constitution and establish the rationale of the student movement. Some of the achievements for the students, such as the availability of educational loans, vehicle subsidiary, etc., have not been made accessible to everyone,” said Khatiwada.
He further expressed that special initiatives should be taken to build a scientific, life-oriented, and socialist education system. “Student movements should also take the initiative to end the political divide in education. As we have been saying since the establishment, the educational movement should be emphasized for the education that links education with labor and labor with production. Besides, ensuring the representation of regular students in the leadership and putting student politics in the hands of real students is also a priority area of the student movement.”
In 2009 March, Raj Bahadur Malla, 17, of Kalikot, was murdered brutally in Surkhet. In the case, the Surkhet District Court earlier this year issued arrest warrants against six individuals including Pancha Singh, chair of the All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union (Revolutionary), the student wing of the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre).
Pancha still holds the position of chair in ANNISU (Revolutionary), yet its mother party, the Maoist Centre, currently leading the government, has not officially commented on this matter.
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