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Student Led Dissent and Mental Health

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Students have taken up the dissenting role in society against brutality and unconstitutional laws, but how does it affect ones mental health and what are some measures they can take?

Student led protests all over the country and especially in the capital have rocked the Nation. As more and more students take to the streets and fight for their idea of India, it has become quite easy to see student protesters as one uniform body. However, vilifying by several media outlets have also led to many forgetting that these are simply just students, who are protesting for what they think is right. For many of us, it is all a new and scary, which might affect us in ways we aren’t aware of and hence, we should not forget to take care of our mental health.

Many students had read about State suppression and brutality in their history books, but seeing it happen in real time in the country and the city where one lives can be a lot to comprehend rationally. Aditi Gutgutia, a first year student from LSR, shared “I’ve heard my friends cry over these atrocities. I’m seeing my country, it’s people, fall to a ground where there doesn’t seem to be any coming back from. And I’m scared. I have never been this vocal or even aware about politics, but now I realize how crucial it is to stand up for what you believe is right. “

In such a politically charged atmosphere, everyone has different opinions and constant defending of one’s opinions can also prove tiring. Bhavika, a DU student and founder of The Happy Company, an online platform where people can reach out for psychological help brings this into view with a different perspective. She said “ we received a messages from people of both sides of the argument. As an individual I have my own political views but as a psychological assistant, it’s my duty to detach myself from those views while listen to someone venting out, and this is how we’ve trained our Volunteers.Over the past few weeks, a lot of us have got into heated arguments over the issue, and that effects us and the other person, more than we think.”

Asmita, a member of Antaraal, which provides free psychological aid to all the students who are going through any form of psychological distress, brought into account that the emotions we feel are complex in this matter. “People are feeling a lot of despair because of whats going on, they are feeling afraid because either they or their friends are involved, they are also feeling very angry at the same time and wanting to do something. Its a lot of complex emotions. A lot of the calls that are coming in are from students who were not previously active in politics, and to them its a very new thing and they don’t know how to react, how much can they push, there is a lot of resistance from their families who are not very happy that they are doing this so they have to fight another battle at home.”

She also suggested some ways to keep one’s mental health at a stable place in these times. Firstly, she suggested not to deny emotions and feelings. She suggested not thinking about whether we are under-reacting or over reacting, and to be in touch with our emotions. She also pointed out the importance of taking a break, to refuel, get better and prepare and not feel that it is a lone fight, and try to look at the positive support from so many others. In the end she said that while emotions and rationality are not two separate things and we should embrace our emotions to help ourselves and others, it is also important to get educated and to talk to people who have more knowledge on the issue, because with information and not just an emotional argument, it will be very hard to dismiss us.

Feature Image Credits: The Wire

Prabhanu Kumar Das

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Why are Israelis moving into a Conflict Zone?

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The conflict of the Jews and Arabs goes back many centuries. Jerusalem and Israel is a sacred place for not only Jews, but for Christians and Muslims also. Thus, this piece of land has been the reason for numerous conflicts and wars. These wars are still going on today, the only difference being that now it is not fought with swords, but waged mentally by starving the enemy of even the basic human rights like education.

Around 535 BCE, Abraham was hailed as the first Jew, and the father of Jewish people. It was at this time that Isaac, the Son of Abraham, was promised that he would inherit the land of Canaan, or the land which we today know as, Israel. Cut to the Middle Ages and we see that the crusades and repeated sieges on the holy city of Jerusalem (The most important city of Canaan and Judaism) left many Jews homeless and thus, they were forced to take refuge in other nations all over the world. The Jew community did face great difficulty during this time, but still managed to rise up and establish themselves as a powerful community with wealth and influence all over the world. 

Palestine History via Pinterest
Palestine History via Pinterest

Coming to the 1900s, we see the rise of Zionism, the movement which gained popularity during the time. The movement’s ideology stated that the only way to save the Jewish culture and Jewish people was the creation of a Jewish state in the holy land of Canaan, which then was an Ottoman province known as Palestine. Then the world witnessed two World Wars during which Jews were subjected to racial and even ethnic cleansing. This resulted in extensive inflow of Jews to the Palestine. It also resulted Ottoman Palestine becoming a battleground for the Jews and Arab Palestinians. There were several clashes between the Jews and the Arabs (who by then had started recognising themselves as a distinct ethnic identity, the Palestinians), seeing the tensions between the two communities, the newly formed United Nations came into action. It offered a Two-State Proposal which would divide the British Palestine (which they had captured from the Ottomans in the First World War) into two Nations, the state of Israel for Jews and the state of Palestine for the ethnic Arabs in the year 1947. The proposal was eagerly adopted by Israel, which declared its independence soon after. But the same was not the case for Palestine, as the Arabs thought of the solution as another attempt of Western imperialism. So, thus started a conflict of ideas, principles and most importantly religion, which we today know as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What followed this were two different wars between Israel and its Arab neighbours, in these wars Israel crushed the Arab alliance and pushed well past its 1947 UN designated borders, capturing all the erstwhile Palestine, the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula and the Syrian Golan heights and thus, during late 1970s started a mass unspoken and unofficial movement in which a large number of Israelis started shifting to occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 

Visualising Palestine.
Visualising Palestine.

This movement, was in addition to politics,  religiously motivated, as the Jews there wanted to established themselves into these areas so that no international force would give these territories to Palestine. Also these territories and areas were religiously very important to Jews. Even though the United Nations, in its 1979 resolution not only condemned this migration, but also declared it illegal. However, the Israeli government did not do anything, instead subsidised these West Bank properties for Israeli citizens, and moreover sent the army for the security of such settlers.

The partition of West Bank as per the Oslo Accords II in 1995. Credits: Vox
The partition of West Bank as per the Oslo Accords II in 1995. Credits: Vox

This resulted in extensive violence and backlash from Palestinians in the face of the First and the Second Intifadas (the Uprising) in 1987 to 1993 and then from 2000 to 2005, respectively. This was followed by a distressing amount of deaths and displacement of the Palestinians, and then a string of peace talks which resulted in practically nothing. 

Even though the Second Intifada resulted in the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (but increasing its activities in West Bank), again it ultimately was a loss for the Palestinians as firstly there was a short civil war between PLO or Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Hamas, which resulted in a split of the unified leadership of Palestine.  Therefore the latter controlled West Bank and the post started controlling the Gaza Strip (Hamas has also been declared an international terrorist organisation by the US and Israel). It was followed by a strict Israeli blockade in Gaza which it justified as Israel claims Hamas to be a terrorist organisation; this gruelling blockade resulted the unemployment rate in Gaza to jump to a startling 40 per cent. 

Thus, today in West Bank we can see a huge void between Israeli and Palestinian neighbourhoods or settlements, on one hand we have highly developed Israeli settlements with scores of world class amenities, but on the other hand we see much worse of Palestinian settlements which lack many basic needs of survival. Apart from that, now Israelis are not just shifting into West Bank settlement for religious purposes, but due to the fact that it has become beneficial for them, as they get government subsidies and world class amenities in these areas. This movement has also been heavily sponsored by not only the Israeli Government but also various NGOs who get funding from the powerful Jewish communities around world.

All of this has resulted in a very pick-you-your-situation as it has become more and more difficult for any sustainable peace proposal to be formed. Due to this increasing number of Jewish population in the West Bank area, the community at the pinnacle of this conflict is the Palestinians’. Ask them how the peace talks work now living in a country wherein they are subjects but not citizens. Israel will never accept them and chances of their own independent state of Palestine are not great. So now they live with an internal question of whether they want their identities as a Palestinian to be saved, or they want a chance to live freely but as Jewish citizens of Israel.

“You can either be a Revolutionary or be a Caged Bird who had a chance to fly but it didn’t.”

– Abraham Lincoln
Feature Image Credits: Scopio

Aniket Singh Chauhan 

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Arts & Culture

Politics of Environment: Class, Caste, and the Climate Change Movement

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Read our Print Editor’s take on entitled social media activism and its removed and elitist enforcement on ground.

A few weeks ago, the Global Climate Change Strike struck its momentum on the streets of Delhi, and organisations like Fridays for Future started marching to mobilise the population against the silence of Government authorities and policy-makers on environmental degradation plaguing our planet. Social media flooded with posters and invitations to partake in the various marches – at Lodhi Gardens, Faculty of Arts, Jantar Mantar, and any place in Delhi which could make the authorities in power take notice, and twist a little in their comfortable seats (on airplanes for some of them).

What appeared to be an excellent initiative and the righteous action in theory, however, raised unsettling questions when seen with a critical lens on ground. A security guard walked up to us during the march at Jantar Mantar, and he asked one of the protesters with sincerity, “Yeh morcha kisliye kar rahe ho aap logg? (What are you guys marching for?)” The person whom he addressed had been sloganeering a few moments ago, but fumbled to express the basic agenda of the protest. This is not to highlight that she herself was ignorant – which, in our millennial thirst for “wokeness”, may verily be an absurd possibility – but to showcase that she did not know the right words in the tongue of the guard (Hindi) to explain the enormity of the issue.

The slogans, cries, and popular references employed in these strikes are, if not monopolised by the English language, subservient to a mainstream understanding which is accessible to a rare few. The “rare few” does not refer to the number – these marches had plenty of people supporting what is a pressing cause – but the strata of the diverse Indian society this form of a movement caters to is, consciously or unconsciously, significantly English-speaking, upper/ middle class. In today’s time, social media has become the norm of propaganda and publicity, but there is an inevitable class and culture divide which makes it impossible for many to become aware, let alone partake, in the cause of the environmental movement.

There are many like the security guard in our country who do not have access to the Instagram stories of the English-speaking, highly privileged influencers, or even concerned educated youth, but that lack of access does not essentially translate to a lack of concern. The movement in India appears to take this language and culture divide for granted. When aspiring for the quintessential western values and standards of awareness, we often laugh at the typical Indian behaviour by equating it with callousness. Knowing at least a minimal level of the English language has become a prerequisite for being included within the ambit of environmental activism in India. The mainstream media and television channels’ non-existent contribution to a movement that is becoming the most threatening matter of survival to our generation, is questionable. While Indian politicians make statements in absolute disregard of science, facts, and anything logically acceptable to an informed brain, it is an unfortunate reality that informs the realms of knowledge for most Indians.

Mainstream media broadcasts the Prime Minister stating, “Climate has not changed. Our habits have changed,” or education ministers claiming that cows exhale oxygen. Media is no longer a vehicle for bringing in expert panels that dissect the threat of global warming and climate change. While Greta Thunberg is an inspiring figure for the movement, a Western icon cannot define the entirety of our understanding of the movement’s complex practicality in India. This becomes a tool for exclusionary caste politics of the movement, since Adivasis and other marginalised tribal communities have been on the streets, fighting for the cause before it became popular on social media. The movement for environmental conservation is not an individualistic fight, and it cannot be a successful one if we delude ourselves in believing so. As youth, these strikes and marches showcase the strength of collectivism and have the power to bring significant policy changes. However, all movements are rooted in the context of their times, or else they lose any real power of change. It is imperative for us, to keep our jargon aside, keep the banners down, and explain our cause to those who will then join their force with ours.

Anushree Joshi

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SDGs and You: How every effort counts!

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Here’s a piece on how each of your actions matter and you at an individual level can bring up the changes for a brighter and better future by your own little deeds.

The Sustainable Development Goals have suddenly gained their required attention and have become the talk of the town.
But the question arises, what are they and how do they concern us? Are they just a matter of concern for international authorities like the United Nations which where behind its inception or can we do our part in executing them?

Understanding SDGs:
The SDGs are a set of 17 goals unanimously adopted by the member nations of the United Nations in order to make the vision come true of a world where the planet is protected and people live a life of peace and happiness in all spheres. These are also known as the ‘Global Goals’ and were created in 2015 with an aim in mind to achieve them all by 2030.

It might sound overambitious and all too daunting to aim to achieve every single one of them but here are some ways in which we can do our bit to achieve them.

SDG 02: No Hunger
Cook some food, go out and offer it to someone in need. Who knows one kind action on your part might just turn into the most wholesome and healthy meal a person gets in their entire day.

SDG 03: Good Health and Well Being
Take out time for yourself.Take a day off, read a book or just eat healthy. It’s the small actions that build strong bridges over the course of time.

SDG 04: Quality Education
If you are reading this article, consider yourself as the fortunate ones who have had access to not only education but internet and other facilities too. Take out an hour everyday or every alternate from your schedule to teach the children of the labourers working around you. One hour might be insignificant to you but it holds the might to bring changes in the life of a child.
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
It’s time to bring into action the words we learnt in childhood. ‘Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.’ is the need of the hour. Smallest acts such as carrying paper or jute bags are actions which can bring amazing changes not only in one’s actions but the environment too!

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Take the public transport! Having sustainable cities is vital for our survival. Small actions which can lead to reduction in pollution emissions or walking the distance are some of the tiniest changes which maximum positive benefits!

SDG 14: Life below Water

Quit straws and plastic bottles! These are two of the things most popular amongst usage but at the same time equally harmful if not more. Explore new alternatives like paper straws and support people bringing such unique initiatives across.

These are just a few of the many Global Goals ahead of us, ones which call and demand action from each one of us. This article is here, to get you brainstorming on how you can do your bit in achieving the goals for a sustainable tomorrow.

Imagine each one of us taking these steps even if that’s just once a week. What monumental changes we can bring across!

In the words of Ban Ki Moon, “Sustainable development is the pathway to the future we want for all. It offers a framework to generate economic growth, achieve social justice, exercise environmental stewardship and strengthen governance.”

Get up, get going. The world awaits you!

 

Image Credits: United Nations Development Program

Amrashree Mishra

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Sorrow of Bihar Glooms the Capital City Patna

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Bihar had become a drought-hit area, and then recently got flooded, receiving 10% extra rain than usual. Arguably, was this a man-made calamity more than a natural disaster? Read on to find out the Bihari diaspora’s take on it.

In hard-hit Bihar, a bird’s-eye-view of state capital Patna made the city appear like a huge lake dotted with concrete structures. Posh low-lying areas like Rajendra Nagar and Pataliputra Colony were flooded. Private hospitals, medical stores and other shops were submerged in waist-deep water. In several parts of Patna, waterlogging had thrown normal life out of gear. Although the rains have stopped now, and waterlogging has receded in most parts, a closer look reveals a bigger picture than just a natural calamity. 

Owing to unexpected and torrential rainfall of 200 mm, almost all areas of the capital of Bihar have been flooded, with water entering homes, offices and other buildings, and standing on the roads. The social media was buzzing with netizens sharing videos of the flood affected area and making satire of #HowdyModi event in which the PM said, all is fine in India. 

Flooding in the city appeared to have been caused by a choked, damaged and dysfunctional drainage system, and delayed activation of pumps at the sump houses. The floods were so severe that animal carcasses were seen on several roads.

Dinesh Mishra, a civil engineer and flooding expert, while speaking to a national daily said, “The authorities have the resources, money and workforce to arrive at a solution. However, planning of drainage systems and efficient sump machines are nowhere to be seen. Authorities have pushed the city to the edge of disaster by misusing public money. Also, now, they all come up with the excuse of ‘climate change.’”

The state of Bihar has gloomed with tragedies this year. First the encephalitis outbreak in Muzzafarpur took hundreds of life in June 2019, then drought hit severel parts of the state in early September damaging agriculture, and then the recent floods have disturbed lives of millions of people in the capital city Patna. Floods are not a rare phenomena in Bihar, the Kosi river is infamous for flooding Khagaria and northern parts of Bihar every year, but the scale and intensity of this retreating monsoon’s flood was as big as the disastrous floods of 1987 and 2004 which took 1,400 and 3,272 lives respectively.

It was not only Patna but also towns like Kaimur, Bhagalpur, Araria, Banka, Munger and Muzzafarpur that faced the wrath of this catastrophe. A more haunting statistic suggests that 494 panchayats in 15 districts were submerged in water when the flood was at its peak. The death toll neared 120 in first four days. Lack of a robust political administration seemed to have aggravated the death toll and loss due to floods.

Rahul Kumar, a student of DU hailing from Buxar says, “What I think, is that the flood is a result of mismanagement and government failure. As a Bihari, what I think is in Bihar, government officials love good flood and droughts because they get chance to make money out of it. This is a man made disaster and not only the government, but we are also fully responsible for the same.”   

Suyash Jha, a fresher from the varsity who hails from Bhagalpur says that these floods have now become a routine affair. “The compound of my grandfather’s home at VIP Road, Laheriasarai get water from overflowing drains every year for the  last 10 years now. Despite several requests to the administration to work on the drainage system in the area no real action has been taken.”

Shivam Srivastava, a third-year student was in Delhi when the unstoppable rain started in Patna on 28th September.  He says, “It was really flabbergasting to see the Chief Minister say something like ‘Yeh toh prakritik apada hai, isme hum kuch nahi karsakte,’ (This is a natural calamity, we cannot help it,).”

Feature Image Credits: Rahul Kumar

Sriya Rane 

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Priyanshu

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Partly Participation: Women in DUSU

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The Delhi University Students’ Union    (DUSU) remains to be the umbrella students’ union for the University of Delhi (DU). It is an integral part of a DU student’s life, and thus, it’s only fair that the DUSU elections carry a lot of weight and hype. It allows a DU student to exercise their right of universal adult franchise, and elect members they believe would be accountable for them. 

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The Glorification of Gandhi and the Rising Sympathy for Godse

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A look at how Gandhi shaped our nation, along with the parts of his character not discussed popularly.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi is popularly remembered as the Father of the Nation. He was one of the leaders at the forefront of the Indian freedom struggle, and has a significant role in the attainment of Indian Independence. These are few of the lines we have been told throughout our lives as children – on the 2nd
October every year, on Independence days, and through our History and Political Science textbooks. This is true for the most part and Gandhi’s return from South Africa did
provide a much-needed boost to the freedom struggle. His work with the downtrodden, and his ideas of non-violence still hold a prominent place in the society today.
However, due to the nature of his death, many of Gandhi’s idiosyncrasies and frailties are ignored when it comes to mainstream dialogue. He is considered to be a man beyond wrongdoing, to be the definition of moral standards, and everything we have been taught all our lives just adds to that line of the narrative. The book Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India by Joseph Lelyveld was banned in his home-state of Gujarat when it came out in 2011.

This is interesting because the book does not break any new ground as such, and still speaks glowingly of Gandhi. Although, it does contain the description of some negative aspects and flaws in the great man’s character.
The banning of this book simply shows how the Indian population cannot withstand any attack in any form on those who they deify as gods.

There are many aspects to Gandhi’s character that should be questioned, because it is through the crevices in popularised and validated ideologies that people find the scope to improve society and, by extrapolation, the world.

One of these aspects showcases that Gandhi was a racist for most of his adult life, especially while working on civil rights in South Africa. His work centered on giving Indians more power and rights, as compared to the local natives who he felt were “inferior”. Gandhi wrote to Adolf Hitler twice in 1939 and 1940,and while it was to call for peace, he did write the following- “…nor do we believe you are the monster described by your opponents”.
Sexually, Gandhi had maintained a vow of celibacy; however, according to Lelyveld’s and Jad Adams’ Gandhi: Naked Ambition, it was said that he maintained close and intimate contact with females, making teenagers, women, and allegedly even his own grandniece sleep naked with him
to test his vow of celibacy. He was incredibly sexist and homophobic, propagating the belief that women should be responsible for the sexual assaults they face. He justified honour killings, labelled women who used
contraceptives as “whores”, and once chopped off the hair of two female followers who were being harassed so that the perpetrators would stop. He also led a campaign to have all traces of homoerotic tradition removed from Hindu temples as part of a “sexual cleansing” initiative.
Gandhi might have been the reason that India is still an ideologically backward, and sexually repressed nation. However, it is no justification for the current narrative propagated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the extremist right-wing labelling Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s killer, as a hero. The incident involving Pragya Thakur serves as a recent example to this belief. The rise of Hindutva under the extreme right has led to many such people being given a status that
they do not deserve.
To conclude, here is the statement by a student from the University
of Delhi, who does not wish to be named, “I know Gandhi did a lot of messed up things, but how can anyone even think (that) celebrating his killer is good? He still helped our freedom struggle; the celebration of his death because he worked to help the Muslim minority just shows the rising intolerance in our country.”

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat Archives.

Prabhanu Kumar Das
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The Politics of Renaming: Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium

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The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) decided to rename Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium as Arun Jaitley Stadium in memory of its former President, who passed away on 24th August 2019.

Renaming landmarks and cities is a global phenomenon, especially in the postcolonial era, as nations, one after the other, became independent post the end of the Second World War. Understandably, they wished to leave their oppressed colonial baggage behind. The objective of renaming being the elimination of the prevailing memories associated with those places, and the liberation of the nation from the painful times of the colonisation. India was a colony of the British and the Mughals for centuries, who, during their rule, redefined the cities and gave abundant historical landmarks that have generated reasonable tourism, etc. But for the past few years, Indians are witnessing the act of redefining these landmarks by changing their names. After the demise of Arun Jaitley, former Union Minister of Finance, the prominent cricket stadium of Delhi, the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium was renamed the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

The motive behind this embodiment was said to be an expression of gratitude towards Late Arun Jaitley, who served as the President of the cricketing body for 13 years, and his love for cricket was well known and certified. This change was made three days after his death. While the cricket ground retained its original name, Feroz Shah Kotla Ground; the name of the stadium was changed without any complexities or questions of why this was not done when Jaitley was alive and could see it for himself. This raises a debate: does this act of renaming places even have an impact on the general public, or are they indifferent and ignorant towards it? According to some people, this practice of altering names does nothing but disrupt the originality of the place and erases a slice of history from the lives of the people who share a connection with them.

Contrary to this, others have said that change is the only constant. They appear to believe that it was high time for India to gain a perspective of what the country was before it was “invaded” and ruled by the people of other nations. India has provided some great leaders, who deserve recognition and a mark of respect that lives for ages, renaming landmarks in their names instead of rulers who deprived us of freedom for long is nowhere wrong and is a progressive step that does not spread hatred. Another example of this manifestation is the renaming of different cities in West India – Allahabad being changed to Prayagraj, Faizabad being changed to Ayodhya, among numerous others. This decision that took place last year in October had the people of India shook. The authorities claim that they only corrected the history as it was Akbar, who changed Prayagraj’s name to Allahabad in 1583. But the residents of the city were not very pleased with the decision. Professor Farooqui, former Vice Chancellor of Allahabad University, said, “You can’t just erase the history of 500 years. Allahabad is not just a name – it’s a feeling that every person who grew up in the city carries, it’s like killing the city’s soul.” India is a secular country, with diverse cultures and demands.

With each new decision, there are going to be people standing by it, and people criticising it. It is hard to say what is in the best interest and what is not, as the nation does not wish to regress with time. A student, who requested to be anonymous, said, “The Government should adhere to the issues that require vigilance rather than altering history or rectifying what should have been done, the locals will always prefer the former name as name simply changes the title but does not resolve the long term issues prevailing in the country.”

Feature Image Credits: India Today

Avni Dhawan

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Done and Dusted: DUSU Elections 2019

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The declaration of Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) results on 13th September ended a month of hooliganism, ruckus, and violation of rules in the name of campaigning.

Every year, the months of August and September witness frenzy and chaos. The roads are littered with flyers and posters, a number of posters with misspelt names of the candidates are pasted on the walls in the Campus area, and rallies pave way for traffic jam. This year too, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won three seats out of four, establishing their majority in the
DUSU.

The voter turnout was recorded at 39.9 percent this year, over four notches down from the last year voter turnout. One of the key points highlighted in this year’s manifestoes of various student political organisations was less wastage of paper. However, candidates contesting DUSU elections clearly violated this rule. The shocking thing here is, that even though the University has a regulatory authority to check these violations, no one comes forward to point these; not even the administration. It is easy to notice all the enthusiasm of the  newly elected office bearers slowly fade away as we inch closer to the end of the year.

I remember, during an interview with Sunny Chillar, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) Presidential candidate for DUSU elections, 2018, the demand of a subsidised INR 10 thali (platter) was discussed. The students of the University were assured that no matter what the election results would be, the thali will be provided to them, since, over 70 percent of students are from the economically weaker sections of the society. A common agenda discussed by both the ABVP and the NSUI almost every year is concessional Metro and Delhi Transport Corporation bus passes for the students of the University of Delhi (DU). However, we, as students, are only able to see a few protest marches and letters written to different ministers and the Administration. On questioning about the same to our student leaders, they reply, “It will happen soon.” Will it be soon enough, for the next set of candidates, to put forward the same demand in next year’s manifesto?

In the race of winning the elections, what the student leaders forget is the reason they are running for the position. Is it for fame? Or, is it for representing and working for the student community? Attacks on opponents are not something new in the election season. The sad part here is, that most of the students of the University equate DUSU election season to violence in and around Campus. The manifestoes talk about the safety of students but, in reality, election season makes us, the student community, feel more unsafe than ever.

Did you know that the DUSU also has a constitution of its own? Yes, most of you do not. The official website of the University has a link to the Constitution. It is a 16-page document which roughly has eight chapters that broadly discuss the functioning, funding, and objectives of the Union. The Vice Chancellor of the University is the Patron, and takes all the necessary steps for the smooth  functioningof DUSU in accordance with the DUSU Constitution. The underlying fact is that, even though all this has been defined in the Constitution, our very own elected student leaders fail to abide by it. Or rather, they forget the ideals upon which the Constitution was established. It is sad to see them absent from the important student-related issues but they are present when a Bollywood celebrity visits a college.

Concluding in the words of Srivedant Kar, former Associate Editor of DU Beat, “It’s high time these elections stop referring to things that the Union cannot do and instead start becoming a fight about what the Union can, and should, do.”

Anoushka Sharma 

[email protected]

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JNU Student’s Union Election Results Declared: All Four Seats Won by United Left

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JNUSU (Jawahar Lal Nehru University Students’ Union) results have finally been announced hours after Delhi High Court permitted them to do so.

The results of JNU Student’s Union were announced on 17th September when the Delhi High Court permitted the varsity to declare the results following the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Community. All the four central panel posts have been won by the United Front of Left students group.

The vote-share of United Front of Left student groups All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) and All India Students’ Federation (AISF) increased to 50.4 percent from 4 percent in the previous year.

Aishe Ghosh of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) won the post of the president by securing 2,313 votes. Manish Jangid from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) secured 1,128 votes. Ghosh belonging to SFI contested under the broader united Left panel. SFI got the post of the President after 13 years.

The post of Vice President has been won by United Left panel’s Saket Moon who secured 3,365 votes, while Shruti Agnihotri from ABVP came second with 1,335 votes. Satish Yadav from the United Left panel emerged as the winner for the post of General Secretary with 2,518 votes while the post of the Joint Secretary has been won by United Left panel’s Mohammad Danish who secured 3,295 votes.

In the previous year also, all the fours central panel positions were won by candidates of the united Left panel. A victory march was conducted within the University campus by the supporters of the United Left panel after the declaration of results.

JNU Student’s Union polls were conducted on September 6, 2019, with a voter turnout of 67.9 percent which was believed to be the highest in last 7 years. The results were to be declared on September 8, 2019, but were delayed till September 17 after petitions were filed in the Delhi High Court by two students alleging their nominations for the election of councillor in the JNUSU were illegally rejected.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat archives.

Priya Chauhan

[email protected] 

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