The Hindu : New Delhi News : Election fever grips JNU

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Thursday, Oct 26, 2006
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New Delhi

Election fever grips JNU

The season of endless nights at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus has begun. Late night get-togethers, lectures, public meetings and cups of "chai" will be the flavour for the next fortnight or so with election fever gripping the campus.

While campaigning has not begun officially, political parties and their supporters are already burning the midnight oil finalising their strategies. And giving students a taste of what is in store, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) invited Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat to speak at its first public meeting early this week.

"Political activity has picked up on the campus. The campus really wakes up at night and you can see various student leaders sitting with their supporters at different dhabas discussing their campaign. Public meetings are also being held. The All India Students' Association (AISA) also organised a meeting on Wednesday to debate the Parliament attack case,'' said a student.

Bringing in more players than the traditional contenders, there are several new entrants eyeing the political throne this time. Apart from Youth For Equality (YFE), the others who are likely to battle it out are Bahujan Students' Front, Chhatra Lok Janshakti, Progressive Students' Union and Democratic Students' Union.

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The long battle that the teachers of Shivaji College have waged against Principal Rama Patnaik is now finally over. With Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental accepting the recommendations of the governing body of the college this week, Ms. Patnaik, who had been accused of administrative and financial mismanagement, is likely to be on her way out.

"The recommendations made by the governing body of the college have been accepted by the Vice-Chancellor and sent back to the governing body for implementation. The governing body had recommended suspension of the Principal as well as an appointment of an Officer on Special Duty,'' said Dean of Colleges Shirin Rathore.

The governing body had also appointed a fact-finding committee to look into the allegations made by the teachers.

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Aligarh Muslim University remembered the vision of its founder at a commemorative meeting held on the occasion of Sir Syed Day. The chief guest was Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to India, Saleh M Al-Ghamdi.

Describing Sir Syed as a visionary who tried to inculcate a scientific temperament and rationality of outlook in the Muslim community, Mr. Al-Ghamdi called for closer educational cooperation between Saudi Arabia and India, especially Aligarh Muslim University.

The commemorative meeting was attended by a large number of teachers, students and prominent citizens. Apart from just remembering the founder at one function, the University has tried to ensure that his spirit lives on in many different ways and the Vice-Chancellor inaugurated an exhibition of books, portraits and rare documents of Sir Syed. A CD of the institute gazette and a book by Syed M. Ahmad on the historical perspective of the admission policy of AMU were also released by the Vice-Chancellor.

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Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi will organise the Fourth Abdus Salam Memorial Lecture on Friday. The lecture this year will be delivered by Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, Director of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. Dr. Sreenivasan is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of fluid dynamics, turbulence, complex fluids, combustion and non-linear dynamics.

-- Mandira Nayar

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