Rajan Gurukkal Faults Kerala University's Move to Curb Campus Politics

Former Kerala State Higher Education Council vice chairperson Rajan Gurukkal has criticised an alleged student code at Kerala University that proposes to regulate political activity on campuses, arguing that such restrictions overlook the part universities play in shaping politically aware and engaged citizens.

In a statement, Prof. Gurukkal described the purported effort to "democratise an outmoded document" as ludicrous. He said higher education institutions are essential spaces where young people develop political awareness, debate public questions and agitate.

He noted that the university's approach recalls the 2024 Sojan Francis case judgment, which effectively placed organisational political activity under prohibition.

Prof. Gurukkal, a former Vice Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University, stressed that university youth are not merely students but citizens and voters living in a society governed by political decisions on education, employment, social justice, public expenditure and rights. Expecting them to leave politics at the campus gate, he said, draws an artificial boundary between education and society.

Universities, he maintained, should produce politically conscious youth bold enough to question authority and speak truth to power. Debate driven by political consciousness, dissent, protest, petitions and agitations must therefore be part of student life, he added.

While student boycotts may disrupt academic activities to make grievances visible, he stressed that they must never be equated with violence or criminality. It is equally important, he said, for young people to separate politics from violence, intimidation, vandalism and coercion.

Prof. Gurukkal said the university's approach becomes problematic when it places political activity in the same conceptual category as criminality, for which a body of law already exists. Such an approach, he stated, amounts to producing apolitical and apathetic youth.