BJP self goal: Why the FYUP win is actually a political loss

Amid all the celebrations surrounding the imminent rollback of Delhi University’s controversial four year undergraduate programme or FYUP, the BJP is suddenly left wondering whether it finds itself on the wrong side the of the debate. [caption id=“attachment_1586709” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A students’ union protest. PTI[/caption] The BJP led students’ union ABVP played a huge part in the protests against the FYUP programme as soon as it was announced by Delhi university and then HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. The move is now expected to greatly benefit ABVP in the upcoming student elections. As Firstpost reporter Soumik Mukherjee noted, “In the coming election, given the current scenario in the Delhi campus, it’s safe to assume that the ABVP might win a clean sweep, riding on the back of this issue”. But has the BJP sacrificed its long term vision on education and institutions for short term campus-level political gains? The protests did, as Firstpost reported, show a display of rare consensus between organisations such as the ABVP and the ultra-left AISA, who came together on the same stage to protest the programme. Both AISA and ABVP termed the programme as ‘anti student’ and ‘anti poor’. However, t his report in the Times of India indicates that the BJP may have not thought through its proposed reforms in higher education while the UGC issued diktats to the DU. According to the report: BJP did not find itself as fundamentally opposed to DU vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh’s bid to introduce a multi-discipline approach or the move to make education more vocation-oriented. Ironically, FYUP’s fallout in terms of making DU more professional is not too different from the proposals that the new NDA government is outlining. In fact, reducing the ideological tilt in education—that BJP feels is skewed in favour of the Left—was not incompatible with the VC’s plans. The move by the HRD Ministry and the UGC to put pressure on the university to roll back FYUP immediately has been criticised by many from across party lines – the mere politicisation of the issue has left students further debilitated, Firstpost has reported . For example, NSUI national secretary Angellica Aribam said FYUP must go but added, “We know that there are shortcomings in the course and want it scrapped. But I would like to add that the UPA never meddled with the internal affairs of the university. Similarly, the UGC should not be a puppet at the hands of the BJP government.” More importantly for the BJP, by succumbing to the election-driven pressure from its student wing, it runs the risk of being saddled with an anti-reform position – one that will be difficult to jettison. As TOI concludes, “But BJP’s gains may prove temporary if the rollback of the FYUP means the end of reforms and is followed by a return to business as usual that a large section of students has been unhappy with.” Sometimes winning a battle can make it harder to win the war.