What do Gujarat student leaders want? Question after Gen Z protests

Gujarat’s universities may have lost student union elections, but not student politics. In fact, the students’ focus has moved on to paper leaks, fee hikes, and other issues concerning their academics. The recent protests led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, which eventually led to Dharmendra Pradhan resigning as the Union Education Minister, have brought the spotlight back on students in politics.

At an event in Ahmedabad on August 21, National Secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS’s student arm, Shravan B Raj said, "Gen Z in India does not want to be cockroaches; they want to be lions,” in an indirect reference to the Jantar Mantar protests.

Several student leaders agree that campus elections should return. The Gujarat University, the state's largest, saw its last elections in 2020, when the NSUI won six of the eight senate seats. The two others went to the ABVP.

Devansh Brahmbhatt, 26, the ABVP’s Gujarat State Secretary, said students didn’t lose interest in politics, and, in fact, they participated enthusiastically when the last elections were held. “Gen Z doesn't believe in enduring it.

They won't tolerate it (injustice),” he said. Brahmbhatt said complaints regarding the Gujarat Common Admission Service (a centralised admission system for colleges across the state), delayed government scholarships, and shortages of teachers in state universities and grant-in-aid colleges were some of the most common issues reaching the ABVP.

Meanwhile, Rahul Tharoda, 29, Gujarat National Students' Union of India General Secretary (NSUI) and Gujarat University Senate member, said students now were more focused on academics and less willing to join political organisations.

The NSUI, therefore, was taking its recruitment efforts to colleges, hostels and paying guest accommodations, he said. He criticised the GCAS admission process, saying it can stretch over months and eat into teaching, examination and extracurricular time.

He also pointed out the lack of permanent faculty members, water problems and inadequate lectures in affiliated colleges. Dharmik Mathukiya, an architect and state president of Association of Students for Alternative Politics (the AAP’s student wing) Gujarat, said student elections were discontinued in mainstream institutions in Gujarat because of "violence and clashes associated with student politics", but he also argued for how other states have continued to hold the elections.

“If you don't hold elections, then you can never understand what student rights are, what students want, what problems they are facing. These issues will never reach the government,” said Mathukiya. Instead of cancelling elections, he suggested increasing security.

Nitish M Nair, 32, former state secretary of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) Gujarat and an advocate, believes Gujarat’s student movement had "weakened" over time, and pointed to the 1974 Navnirman Movement as an example of how powerful student mobilisation could become.

Satyesha Leuva, 27, State Secretary of SFI Gujarat and an advocate, said SFI worked around students’ rights, social reforms and issues affecting marginalised sections. On the CJP protests, Tharoda said, the government was “scared of students coming onto the streets”.

ABVP's Brahmbhatt said, “The movement of the students was right. But… political parties came there and started speaking about the restoration of Article 370,” he said, adding that issues such as LGBTQ+ rights and religious slogans had nothing to do with the NEET protest.