NEW DELHI: Delhi University is likely to conduct the election to the students’ union this September, after a three-year gap, fulfilling a long-standing demand of the students
What are the implications of the election not being held for so long?
Student elections are a process in which leaders as well as voters participate. For the last 3 years, we missed the atmosphere of having the election and the students ended up suffering.
What will be the core issues for your organization?
In 2019, when ABVP won three out of four Council seats, we had made a 5P model in our manifesto. These stood for: pravesh (admission), pariksha (examination), parinaam (results), parisar (campus) and pathyakram (course). We will continue to promote this.
How would you want the election to be conducted?
I believe the election is a democratic festival of the university and we house a mini-India here as students from different ideologies, cultures and identities come to the campus. There should be any changes made to the election process. It should be held as usual.
What will be the challenges of conducting an election this year?
The biggest challenge will be to maintain that aura all over again because this year, every student in the three-year programme will be new to the process. To bring all of them to participate will be a bit of a task.
What will be your message to the student voters during the election?
Our message to the student voters is that they are lucky to be staying in a positive environment just when India celebrated its 75th independence day. We will call upon every student to participate and exercise their voting right to elect the right leader for themselves.
What are the implications of the election not being held for three years?
In the past three years, students have borne the brunt of the Covid lockdown. Because of the lack of a students’ union, many decisions like CUET and FYUP were imposed on students, without hearing them out.
What will be the core issues your organization will fight for in the election?
Privatization of the campus; the movement against FYUP; concern for the girl students, gender sensitization on the campus and saving democracy in the campus will be our core issues.
How do you want the election to be conducted this year after a gap of three years?
The varsity administration should provide relaxation in the attendance criteria because in a three-month semester, you cannot expect 75% attendance. Also, we must involve girl students and colleges.
What will be the challenges of holding the election this year?
This will be the first time that elections will be held for all students pursuing graduation. They will be totally new to DUSU politics. It will be a challenge to introduce ourselves with our motives and plans.
What will be your message to the student voters?
I would urge them to participate in the election whole-heartedly because we have to fight together
against many issues in which the varsity did not consider our views.
Has DU missed anything in the past three years by not holding the student election?
If I talk as a student, we have missed many things on campus because of not having elections. We might have had a DUSU council but it was of no use because students faced major issues during the admissions, CUET examinations, results, classes etc. There was no one to represent our issues to the concerned authorities.
What will be the core issues your organization will fight for in the forthcoming election?
Raising the fee structures has been an issue since 2017. Our core issue will be to take up this up with the Vice Chancellor. Another issue will be the safety of girls. We have been witnessing so many harassment cases in the colleges and I feel we need to make sure that our campuses are safe enough. The third issue will be on CUET being imposed on the students. We want students to give their genuine feedback on the same.
How do you want the election to be conducted this year after a gap of three years?
The only thing I want is that elections should be held no matter what. Nothing can be allowed to prevent the same.
What will be the challenges of having the election this year?
The only challenge I see is the university’s approval on conducting the election and not going back on
the decision.
How has DU suffered on account of not holding the election for the past three years?
There has been a sharp decline in DU’s political culture. We have also seen a steep decline in the critical thinking of students and talk about the students’ issues at large. Since many students have passed out who was elected to the DUSU or participated in college elections in 2019, there is a complete absence of any representative body and students have no place to go to raise their grievances.
What will be the core issues your organisation will fight for in the election?
We will demand to scrap of FYUP and NEP 2020; flag rising cases of suicides; ask that hostel be made available to every student and inclusion of women colleges in DUSU. We would fight for the academic freedom of students and professors across DU.
How do you want the election to be conducted this year after a gap of three years?
We hope that all the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee would be taken seriously and the nexus of money, muscle and caste would be consciously broken by the administration.
What will be the challenges of having the election?
Since students who are studying right now have never been part of the election process, it would be a challenge to mobilise them to come and vote for their rights.
What will be your message to the student voters?
Students should try to avoid corrupt forces in the campus and vote for the ones who actually stand for
their rights.