A day after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)asked Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) president Ankiv Baisoya to resign from his post pending inquiry into the “fake degree” controversy, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on Friday said the DU administration only has two options.
The NSUI said the DU administration can either call for fresh elections or promote as president NSUI’s Sunny Chhillar, the runner-up in the DUSU polls for the same post. The All India Students’ Association, which shared a platform with the NSUI, made the same demand so that “the faith of students in free and fair elections, and trust in DUSU is restored”.
Although DU has maintained silence on action against Mr. Baisoya, Additional DCP (North) Harendra Singh said the Head of Department of Buddhist Studies had written to the DU Registrar informing him about cancellation of his admission.
“A copy of this [the letter] has been given to the SHO. We have written to Registrar. If any communication is received from any authority, we may take legal action,” said Mr. Singh.
NSUI’s Ruchi Gupta said, “Being a student of DU is a non-negotiable requirement to contest the DUSU polls. Election to the post of the DUSU president where a fake student contested and won is thus null and void. Now there are only two possibilities — either fresh elections will be held or the runner-up for the post in the DUSU polls [Mr. Chhillar] will be declared president. There is no question of ABVP’s Shakti Singh, who is currently the DUSU vice-president, being promoted as its president.”
The NSUI argued in a statement that “as per Section 101 of the Representation of People’s Act 1951, Mr. Chhillar should be declared the winner since Mr. Baisoya violated Provision B of the same article of Act, and that NSUI has proven beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Baisoya’s nomination was void from the beginning as he was not entitled to be on the rolls of DU.”
DUSU secretary Aakash Choudhary too has written to DU Vice-Chancellor, asking him to conduct fresh elections stating that the union will not be able to run properly in absence of the president.
