The Hindu : New Delhi News : Student outfits lay out agenda for JNU polls

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Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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New Delhi

Student outfits lay out agenda for JNU polls

Staff Reporter

Indo-US nuclear deal, Nandigram violence and Rizwanur Rahman’s death will be hotly debated

Final list of candidates released by the JNUSU election committee
Outgoing president Dhananjay Tripathi is in the race for the post this year as well

NEW DELHI: Issues like the Indo-US nuclear deal, reservation for Other Backward Classes in Central educational institutions, Nandigram violence and the recent case of Rizwanur Rahman’s death in Kolkata came to the fore as candidates of various students’ organisations contesting the upcoming Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union elections introduced themselves at a press conference here on Tuesday.

At the interaction organised by the JNUSU election committee, the spokespersons and one candidate from each party such as the Students’ Federation of India, the All India Students’ Association, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the National Students’ Union of India spoke about the concerns of students on the campus as well as issues dominating national politics.

The final list of candidates was also released by the committee on Tuesday.

Speaking about his party’s agenda, outgoing president Dhananjay Tripathi, who is in the race for the post of JNUSU president this year as well, said: “The JNUSU had demanded that the cut-off date for the University Grants Commission’s scholarships should be July 2005. While the administration agreed in principle to this, there has been no concrete assurance. The SFI-AISF combine is committed to building up a massive movement to ensure it. We want new hostels to be constructed on the campus. We are opposed to corporate funding in JNU. In this election, we are seeking a mandate against the anti-people economic policies, US imperialism and a unipolar world order.”

The rest of the SFI-AISF central panel comprises Roshan Kishore (vice-president), Fauzan Abrar (general secretary) and Sejuti Dasgupta (joint secretary).

The outgoing general secretary Sandeep Singh is AISA’s presidential candidate for 2007-08. He spoke about giving a “befitting rebuff to the casteist Youth for Equality and communal ABVP”.

“We want to make sure that the JNUSU does not stand in support of the killers of Nandigram, rapists of Tapasi Malik in Singur and murder of Rizwanur Rahman. We have been standing for and will continue to demand a powerful assertion of students and workers’ rights on the campus, fellowships and better campus facilities. We are against the neo-colonial assaults of nuclear deal, special economic zones and patents,” he said.

The AISA panel includes Shephalika Shekhar (vice-president), Pallavi Deka (general secretary) and Mohammed Mobeen Alam (joint secretary).

NSUI’s stand

Presenting the central panel of his party, Tauquir Alam, who will contest the election for the post of president for NSUI, defended the nuclear deal stating that it would “end India’s isolation from the global mainstream and enable the country to participate in full international cooperation in nuclear research and technology”.

Demanding implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi fellowship and the Maulana Azad fellowship for minority students, he appealed to the student community to “evaluate the United Progressive Alliance’s endeavour and commitment to putting into practice pro-people policies”.

The NSUI has fielded the following candidates: Shabbir Alam (vice-president), Kavita Sharma (general secretary) and Harsh Vardhana Shyam (joint secretary).

In his introductory remarks, ABVP’s presidential candidate Amit Singh highlighted the “anti-farmer incidents” in Nandigram and Singur and the “re-emergence of the politics of minority appeasement and attempts to give reservations on religious lines.”

“The UPA has been reckless in making India an appendage to the global capitalism thereby creating a situation wherein a large number of farmers are compelled to commit suicides. Price rise has become the order of the day and poor sections of the population continue to grovel under acute poverty,” he said, presenting the following panel: Saurabh Dubey (vice-president), Ankita Bhattacharjee (general secretary) and Sudhanshu Priyadarshi (joint secretary).

Other organisations like the Forum for People’s Rights, the Democratic Students’ Union and the Progressive Students’ Union also presented their panels.

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