The All India Students’ Association (AISA) on Tuesday introduced its candidates for the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) polls, to be held on September 12, and released its manifesto.
The student organisation is basing its campaign as a vote against what it calls the “reign of terror unleashed by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad [ABVP] in DU”.
The AISA claimed that an atmosphere of terror has engulfed the university since the incident at Ramjas College, when a seminar was disrupted, as violence allegedly perpetrated by the ABVP has been normalised.
‘Censor board’
The organisation said the elections are a “referendum on violence” and that it has the support of several students who are not politically affiliated but want to regain the university as a space where department seminars, theatre festivals and film screenings are not disrupted by the ABVP, which has started acting like the “censor board” and any opinion that goes against its ideology is silenced.
DU AISA president Kawalpreet Kaur said the unity march, that saw thousands of students march for a violence-free campus, was a victory for the organisation. Hoping that the support the AISA received for the march will get converted into votes, Ms. Kaur alleged that even teachers were scared to question the ABVP or give permission for conducting seminars as they feared an attack by the ABVP.
Commenting on the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the AISA said the contest has become an ABVP versus AISA battle as the NSUI has not taken a stand on any issue despite having one post in the outgoing DUSU panel.
The AISA has undertaken several campaigns ahead of the polls, including ‘Clean DUSU, Green DUSU’. The event, spread across 30 DU colleges, saw students campaign against littering and defacement of campus allegedly by candidates of the ABVP and the NSUI.
“On the one hand the Modi government is spending thousands of crore on promoting Swachh Bharat and has also forced a 0.5% Swachh Bharat cess on the common man, but on the other the ABVP, which is affiliated to the BJP and the RSS, is involved in littering and defacing the campus, thereby mocking the whole swacchta campaign of the Modi government,” said the organisation.
AISA’s presidential candidate Parul Chauhan from Satyawati College said she is fighting the elections to bring a change in the atmosphere of hooliganism that has entered the university due to which the teachers and students are intimidated and beaten.
Other students standing for central posts are Aditya Baibhav from the Department of Buddhist Studies for the post of vice-president; Jaishree from Kirori Mal College for the post of secretary; and Akash Gupta of the law faculty for the post of joint secretary.
Money, muscle politics
The panel members said the DUSU elections have become a playground for money and muscle politics that alienate the aspirations and demands of the common DU students.
The students said if voted to power, they will turn DUSU into a vehicle of struggle that will fight for constructions of hostels, room rent control act and house rent allowance for all students who need it. They also promised affordable transport facilities like metro pass, student pass in AC buses, U-special buses and buses for girls.
