Almost two months after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of students' union elections at Jawaharlal Nehru University here and after an intense stand-off between the administration and students' organisations marked by protests and hunger strikes, the university will finally be holding the elections in February.
“The Vice-Chancellor has told us that we can hold the elections by February end and a grievance redressal forum, a requirement to hold the elections as per the new norms, will be set up at the earliest,” said Students' Federation of India vice-president Zico Dasgupta.
According to the Supreme Court's guidelines released in December last, the elections had to be conducted within months of the university reopening and the administration was unsure whether elections could be conducted almost at the end of the academic year. Therefore, they had asked the students to wait for legal confirmation before going ahead with the elections.
However, the students, who had not seen an elected union for almost four years were angered at the prospect of losing out on another year. Camping for almost a week outside the Vice-Chancellor's office, they had gone on hunger strike demanding an immediate commitment from the “indifferent” administration.
However, contending that even their position was precarious, the administration had stood firm and refused to give in to their demands. The hunger strike continued for more than a week before the students finally calmed down after the administration promised to make haste in getting the legal confirmation.
“After the Vice-Chancellor's assurance on Thursday morning, the election commission appointed by us decided to meet on Friday and decide the schedule. According to new rules, polling has to be conducted within 15 days of filling of the nomination papers. We have lost four years and we do not want to lose any more time,” said All-India Students' Federation member Sandeep.
Meanwhile, the news of the upcoming elections was met with jubilation. “We will hold a victory march in the university in the night and everyone is invited,” announced Zico.
