On 22nd of February, the Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ) conducted its first student representative elections. The elections that were supposed to signify the emergence of democracy in less than a year of the institution was marred by controversy.
The commotion started after the teachers barred the student’s who didn’t submit their semester fee. This angered a section of students who started protesting. Following the initial rebellion, the faculty allowed everyone to vote but only after all voted were counted; they rejected the demand for new polls. Students believed that they were asked to cast votes only to pacify them, their vote counts want even counted.
Soon a DSJ student called Kunal Sehrawat, Vice President of Delhi University Students’Union. Upon Sehrawat’s presence, a verbal acceleration between a faculty member and the DUSU representative took place which came to a close after Mansawini Yogi (check spelling), Officer on Special Duty, met him.
According to the DSJ students, the meeting didn’t reach an amicable end, but both the parties decided that the whether or not they should have fresh polls for the Students Represent post will be decided by the Delhi Students’ Welfare (DSW).
Talking to DU Beat about the protests, Manasvini Yogi, OSD, DSJ, reasoned, “Certain students weren’t allowed to vote because they didn’t pay the semester fee despite reminds and fact that the last date of fee submission has passed. Technically, these students are university students as of now.”
Responding to these allegations, a student said, “We weren’t even given the fee submission link on time. There are students who were sent the link later, and by the time they began the login the link has expired. We duly informed the faculty about it, but they didn’t care. Now the blame is on us. This isn’t fair.”
“When we paid our first-semester fee we also paid an amount that was charged for the whole year, like the electricity bill, media lab charges, etc. Therefore, it’s not as though we haven’t paid the fee at all,” Mohammed Ali, a student from DSJ, added. This isn’t the first time that students have shown discontent with the authorities. Only time can tell when the brewing unrest will come to an end.
Th story will be updated
Image Credits: Srivedant Kar for DU Beat
Niharika Dabral
Comments are closed.