Galgotias University is Not Alone: ​​Hollow Jargon in Institutions Mirrors Students’ Political Slogans

Galgotias University: A private university in Uttar Pradesh has attracted unwanted publicity on traditional and social media. A group of students from Galgotias University in Greater Noida were recently interviewed at a protest march. They carried posters and raised slogans criticizing the past and future policies of the Congress Party.

The party’s election manifesto was a particular target, with students displaying placards claiming that the Congress would seek votes and redistribute wealth through false promises. These echo recent comments by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was more specific in his comments that, if the Congress is elected to power, wealth will shift from one religious community to another. The students also carried posters with hammer and sickle images that condemned “urban Naxalism”.

The media outrage over the incident stemmed from the fact that when a TV news reporter questioned the protesters about their concerns such as inheritance tax, “urban Naxalism” and the Congress manifesto, they appeared largely ignorant. They gave confusing answers about what they were protesting about and it did not seem as if anyone present had actually seen the Congress manifesto, let alone read it.

It seemed as if they had been given some banners and told to look appropriately agitated. Unfortunately, however, they encountered an alert news reporter who decided to ask some (not too tough) questions. The public’s frustration with the protesters’ ignorance about the public and private matters about which they were demonstrating is entirely justified.

However, this is not an episode that is necessarily about the end of critical thinking and public awareness at a particular institution, whose students were found to be particularly misinformed.

The lack of meaningful engagement with important issues (and knowledge) that shape and influence public and private life is part of some broader trends. And, it affects many different types of educational contexts, both “elite” and those where students may be first-generation university goers whose primary objective is to secure gainful employment, not to “expand” horizons of thought. “

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