Saiyed Danish for IndiaTomorrow.net,
Allahabad, Feb 21: In the fourth phase of UP elections, Allahabad matters most with its 12 assembly seats. This city is known as the home of great freedom fighters like Motilal ad Jawaharlal Nehru and Chandrashekhar Azad who was martyred at the famous Alfred Park. It has breathtaking monuments including Nehru family’s ancestral house Anand Bhawan, which now runs as museum.
But that is not the only identity of this city. Allahabad is known as a centre for all levels of education for decades. Its convent schools and institutions of higher education have shaped the politics of this region and the country as a whole. Despite that no candidate from Allahabad had anything to offer in the field of education in his manisfesto.
IndiaTomorrow.net visited Allahabad University and spoke to youths and student leaders on their aspirations and expectations from this election and mainly, what kind of issues they think should be taken up the parties to improve the situation and needs of the youth.
“Dr. Madhukar Mishra , a former student leader from the university complained about the deterioration of education in the university due to political management of the faculties by the government.
“It has been observed by the student community that for the past decade, the quality of education and overall atmosphere and reputation of our university has fallen due to the political interference in the appointments of VCs and other faculty members. During the UPA rule and also under the current Modi government, mouthpieces of the ruling party have been appointed as professors and administrators, as a result education seems to be hijacked by politics,” he argued.
On national issues affecting the student community such as note ban, Agneya, another student said, “people are reeling under the outcomes of the decision and many students had to live on tea and without main course food due to demonetization.”
However, some students differed from him and welcome the central government’s controversial move.
“It is true that people have been affected by the decision but it is too soon to accept the demonetization affect. People are saying GDP has gone low but they should see that with money in the banks government is funding schemes like Gramin Rozgar Yojna more effectively,” a student opined.
One student on account of anonymity shared his own story of victimization due to ‘corruption in the field of education in Akhilesh Yadav government’.
“A year ago, 1300 CPMT forms were sold and I filled it along with the fees of Rs. 13,000 but no answer from the government has come yet. I think I have lost my money,” said Pulkit.
When asked their opinion on the issue of tainted candidates the students candidly asserted that it is people’s responsibility to ask for candidates with no criminal history. They had to say we voters have become selfish and base our choices on irrelevant factors.
Madhukar Mishra, another also pointed out that no candidate from even Allahabad North, has included issue of education and improvement of student community despite this city being the hub of education.
“It is a travesty that education could not become an important issue in this election. If it goes like this this. It will certainly impact our future, he said.
From Allahabad North, Anurag Narayan Singh from Congress-SP, Harshvardhan Bajpayee from BJP and Amit from BSP have been fielded.
