A physical education professor of SRCC on Monday alleged that he was attacked by DUSU president Satender Awana, a claim that has been refuted by the student leader. The professor, who’s been identified as Dr. Vineet Mehta, was on duty in the college when Awana, along with a group of students approached the department office to meet the teacher in charge of the college swimming pool.
Dr. Mehta claims that Awana came to meet Dr. Kuljeet Kaur, in charge of the pool committee, on the directions of the college principal, and when the group entered the office, Awana started using expletives against the professor. As Dr. Kaur was not in the office, the student leader asked for her phone number upon which the professor showed his denial and was consequently thrashed.
College authorities allege that the Police were initially reluctant to register an FIR for the fear of a possible backlash from the students. Only when roughly 70 teachers marched to the Maurice Nagar police station and a delegation met the DCP was the FIR registered on 14th afternoon. Copies were also sent to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Civil Lines, and the Commissioner of Police.
Awana claims that a group of students had approached him before to request a reduction in the swimming pool fee for non – SRCC students from Rs 200 to Rs 20, the standard fee for SRCC students, upon which he took up the issue with the principal. The principal directed him to the physical education department, where, denying allegations of physically assaulting the professor, he claims to have had just an ‘argument’.
The principal has assured prompt representation to the Vice Chancellor and the advisor to DUSU and has also sought legal advice on the issue. The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has decided to stage a protest against the student leader today to demand action from the university authorities.
Delhi University Students’ Union President Satender Awana’s name has been mentioned along with that of other family members in an FIR filed by a woman with the Noida police on March 12. The woman has accused the Awana family of harassment over dowry, molestation and attempt to murder and has filed the FIR against her husband, Mohit Awana, and her in laws. Satender Awana has been named in the FIR as one of her brothers-in-law. The accused have not been arrested and the case has been sent for mediation, as is customary in dowry disputes, according to The Hindu.
The complainant has alleged that, the Awana family had harassed and assaulted her over not complying with their additional dowry demands, though their initial demands for money and a car were met by her family.
Satender Awana, a leader of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarathi Parishad, informed the media that he is not related to the woman who filed the FIR, though he knows the family as members of his village in Noida. The family dispute has been raging since Mohit Awana was married to her in May last year. The police have also been unable to establish Satender as one of the brothers-in-law of the complainant.
Awana has said that he will file a defamation case against the complainant on grounds of trying to tarnish the image and reputation of himself and his family. In a statement to the media, Awana said, “People who know my family and myself are familiar with our character and lifestyle. These allegations are baseless and fictitious, and the truth of the matter will be proved in court.”
Students’ organisations like the All India Students’ Association have raised the demand for Awana’s resignation from the post of DUSU President. In retaliation, Awana questioned such a demand on the grounds that these demands were not raised against Kanhaiya Kumar who faced charges of sedition. However, he agreed to step down if the allegations were proved.
Awana has earlier made controversial statements, such as threatening to “shoot down the traitors in JNU” who allegedly raised anti-India slogans. He was also accused of misbehaving with two journalists who were conducting a survey on sexual consent on Delhi University’s North Campus.
Amidst tight security provided by the Delhi Police, the season of campaigning finally came to an end as voting for the Delhi University Students’ Union concluded on Friday. The results of the elections will be declared on Saturday at noon.
The turnout was reported to be over 44% for morning colleges. The turnout for evening colleges will be confirmed later. Last year, the figure for morning colleges stood at 42.3%. Voting began at 8:30AM and went on till 12:30PM for morning colleges.
#Live: Voting has begun! Do go out and exercise your right and responsibility this year at the #DUSU #election 2015.By Shraman Ghosh for DU Beat
Elections for college unions were also conducted on Friday. The results for the same were announced on the same day.
Major parties like ABVP, NSUI, CYSS and AISA halted campaigning on the 9th. AAP’s CYSS is the new entrant to DU’s politics this year. Last year, ABVP swept all 4 seats of the DUSU.
DUSU is one of the most influential students’ unions of the country; numerous past office-bearers, Arun Jaitley and Ajay Maken to name a few, have gone ahead to hold public offices in Central and State Governments.
Delhi University goes to polls for the Student Union elections on Friday, September 11. With NSUI, AISA and the newcomer CYSS aiming to topple ABVP off the top, DU Beat attempted to gauge what is running through an average DU student’s mind.by conducting an online DUSU Opinion Poll which was taken by hundreds of students. Here are the key takeaways from the results:-
By Aditya Rathore for DU Beat
1) ABVP barely edging past CYSS
After a clean sweep in the DUSU elections last year with a clear margin, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) seems to be headed for another win this year too, with almost 35% of the respondents giving them their vote. Their decisive margin of victory might be in trouble because of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), the student wing of AAP that will be making its debut in the DUSU elections this year. CYSS takes the second position, with nearly 31% respondents saying they will vote for them. These are followed by All India Students’ Association (AISA), The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and other parties, who have 14.7%, 13.2% and 6.6% of the votes respectively.
2) Second consecutive term for ABVP after a “meh” year
ABVP’s lead in the polls is not surprising but definitely worth pondering over, given that most respondents-around 44% of them- rated the outgoing union (led by ABVP) as not up to the mark. Only a mere 20% of the respondents rated their performance as ‘Brilliant’, while 34% opted for ‘Poor’. The right-wing party has been criticised for its stand against homosexuality and live-in relationships, which might have led to a decrease in their approval in the progressive atmosphere of the University. Their push for important issues like the rollback of the FYUP, reintroduction of revaluation and ‘special chance’ may get them enough votes to secure another win.
3) Rent regulation a hot topic yet again
Rent regulation for flats and PG accommodations as well as more hostels emerged as the most important agenda (31.6%), followed by the Curriculum (20%) which has been under fire because of the implementation of the hotly debated Choice Based Credit System (27.1%). These were followed by the ever-relevant demands for more colleges and seats as a way to counter the astronomically high cut-offs (20%), better Transportation facilities (6.7%) and calls for Gender Equality (6.7%).
4) Parties’ national affiliations a major deciding factor- ‘Modi wave’ still doing the trick for ABVP?
Another notable result was the importance respondents gave to the national political alignment of student bodies. It’s common knowledge that all parties in DUSU are associated with some or the other National political party, like ABVP with BJP, and NSUI with Congress. According to the results, this association affects the voting decisions of more than 51% respondents. This might be due to the understanding that if the party reigning DUSU is in sync with the national or state government, it would ensure smooth functioning and better and faster implementation of changes.
5) Over half the respondents offered freebies
Ironically, with all the cacophony about ‘cleaning’ student politics and reducing muscle power, a whooping 57% respondents witnessed or were offered freebies in an attempt to woo them for their votes. Parties have been known to openly flout the rules by offering movie tickets and *ahem* organising concerts.
As a follow up to the DUSU Opinion Poll and to ensure the parties get a structured platform to present their agendas to students and that students get to make an informed decision, DU Beat is organising Delhi University’s first Presidential Debate at 6 PM, 9 September at Press Club of India, Raisina Road. The debate will be streamed live. Read more about it here. Here’s hoping for clean polls and an effective and decisive Union that puts the interest of the students first!
Disclaimer: The results have been drawn solely from the responses we received. DU Beat does not claim for these to be the actual results of Delhi University Students’ Union election 2015.
With the date of polling just 9 days away, the political arena of Delhi University is catching fire as contesting parties step up their campaign for DUSU elections. Parties including Chatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, National Students’ Union of India and All India Students’ Association are leaving no stone unturned in their pursuit of victory.
The week gone by had the Delhi Police register over twenty FIRs against various student parties for cases related to defacement of public property through promotional posters. Last week, we reported the move of the Chief Election Officer of DUSU elections, DS Rawat, to seek help from the Delhi Police in cracking down on defaulters of civic and election rules.
In another development, the launch of a University-special bus in the South Campus of DU took an ugly turn when CYSS and ABVP took to social media to claim the credit for the same. The bus was covered with posters of CYSS, one of which read, “Welcome freshers.” Saket Bahuguna, State Secretary of ABVP, referred to a meeting DUSU had had with the CM of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, earlier this year to demand similar amenities for DU students. He also went on to ask why action was not being taken by the police for the ‘act of defacing public property’.
The CEO of DUSU elections has also announced the availability of Delhi University Community Radio (DUCR) to candidates in order to promote paperless campaigning. Candidates will be allowed to record five-minute long speech which will be moderated and aired on the radio at 90.4Mhz.
The CEO also announced the doing away of allowing candidates to change their names by prefixing the letter ‘A ‘several times before their names. This practice enabled candidates to get their names enlisted higher on the EVM machines as names are placed in alphabetical order. Last year, AISA had challenged the practice legally.
AISA organised a referendum dubbed as ‘Opinion Dhamaka’ in which 93% respondents reportedly voted against the Choice Based Credit System. Earlier, Students’ Federation of India conducted a similar referendum in which 92% respondents voted against CBCS.
Q. As the outgoing DUSU Vice President, how satisfying was your experience and what challenges did you come across?
Ans: My experience was very different and not as I expected it to be. As the Vice-President and DUSU a representative, I understood that students put a lot of faith in us to take important steps and decisions. With power comes the responsibility to fulfil people’s expectations. When we are unable to do so, students do show disappointment. However, we tried to deliver our best and we did as much as we could.
Q. This year, AAP’s newly found student wing – Chatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti is also contesting the DUSU polls. Does this hinder ABVP’s chances to get back to positions again? What is your stategy?
Ans: Indeed they have planned to contest in the polls, however we remain calm and aren’t intimidated by anyone’s entry in the polls. As far as ABVP and its strategy is concerned, we believe in taking the politically experienced lot to contest for the elections and plan to do the same this year as well.
Q. Any advice for future office bearers who seek to achieve many goals for the University?
Ans. One learns a lot while being in position. One should know that we can’t fulfil all our goals but at the same time this shouldn’t deter us to try and achieve them. I feel every year new challenges emerge and they’ll learn with the flow.
Q. What do you think have been the achievements of DUSU in your tenure?
Ans. We tried to make the life of students hassle free. South Campus started a new bus service, we protested against unjust University guidelines from time to time, the scrapping of FYUP being the major example. We weren’t just limited to these things but had a more holistic approach in making a student’s life at DU better. Hopefully our efforts held some significance.
With the DUSU elections around the corner, parties are engaged in full blown campaigning. One cannot miss supporters rallying in the streets and engaged in promotion. We interviewed Mohit Nagar, who is the outgoing President of Delhi University Students’ Union, on his experience and future plans.
Q. Tell us about your greatest success so far.
Mohit: The union has lots of achievements to brag about. The FYUP rollback was a historic achievement for us. Revaluation has been restarted with the efforts of DUSU. Readmission has been restarted in DU. AICTE approval for all (28) DU colleges offering engineering has been attained. Shuttle bus service in South Campus and offline admission center in North Campus were also possible only because of DUSU.
Related reading:Interview with Mohit Nagar midway his tenure by DUB
Q. In your manifesto you had talked about providing separate hostels for North Eastern students. By providing separate accommodation do you not think that you increasing their chances of being perceived as a separate community?
Mohit: There are always two sides of a coin. I believe in working for the unpredictable. Most people will believe it is an act of separatism but that is what we need to change. North Eastern students have always suffered the worst conditions and have been ignored in the society. North Eastern students feel unsafe, insecure and suffer bias in this community. Not all of them can afford an expensive lifestyle in a city like Delhi and a hostel will be a blessing for them. There is a deep fear among North Eastern students about losing their culture and sense of identity. Hostels will be welcome among them as there is a good percentage of students from the North East.
Mohit: DUSU elections imply heavy campaigning. The whole point of campaigning is to uplift the ability of a candidate from zero to being the people’s choice. At the same time, paper campaigning turns out to be a major source of annoyance and disappointment for all the students. During the election season, you find roads, classrooms, college campuses and metro stations flooded with paper pamphlets and name cards of the DUSU candidates. Therefore, ABVP has decided to shun the use of paper to avoid littering college campuses. As huge supporters of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, we have decided to preserve the beauty of the campus by keeping it clean.
Q. Your policies are more or less similar to those of NSUI and AISA. What makes ABVP stand out?
Mohit: As for what makes ABVP stand out, with great pride, I can say that ABVP is not just India’s but the world’s biggest independent student organisation. We are an organisation which lives by its word and makes sure it never leaves promises unfulfilled. We stay active throughout the year. Other organisations like NSUI and AISA are mostly seen around campus during the election time. ABVP, irrespective of its candidature in DUSU, works for student welfare and their rights. We have addressed all the major and minor issues of the University, some of which the other parties fail to even recognise.
Q. DUSU is often said to the stepping stone to national politics. What are your plans after DUSU?
Mohit: That’s true to some extent. As a student, I would like to work for students’ rights further.
Amidst uproars over the exploitation of employees and claims about the government’s commercialisation project engulfing the University by Left wing Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF), various teachers associations announced their candidates for the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) elections slated for the 27th of this month. DTF, in a press release has appealed to the teachers of the University by attacking red tapism.
Nandita Narain, Associate Professor of Mathematics at St. Stephen’s College and the incumbent DUTA President has been nominated by the association for the position of President again this year. For the DUTA Executive, the nominated candidates are Angad Tiwari (Department of Hindi, Sri Aurobindo College- Evening), Bhupinder Chaudhry (Department of History, Maharaja Agrasen College), Vijaya Venkataraman (Department. of GRS, Faculty of Arts, DU) and Vivek Mohan (Department of History, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce). The Congress backed Academics for Action and Development has announced Sanjay Kumar from Zakir Husain College for the position of President. The National Democratic Teachers’ Front, which is led by BJP, has nominated V S Negi (Department of Geography, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College- Evening) for the position of President. For DUTA Executive, Anil Sharma (Department of Hindi, Zakir Hussain PG College – Evening), Ashok Kumar Yadav (Department of Commerce, Shyam Lal College- Evening), Shambhu Nath Dubey ( Department of Political Science, ARSD College) and Sunil Kumar (Department of Political Science, Dyal Singh College) have been nominated.
In another development, the varsity declared that the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections will be held on September 11.The elections will decide the office bearers in the union and the central council and will be closely watched by major national political parties. The last date to file nomination is September 2 and the date for withdrawal is September 4. This year will also witness the debut of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti(CYSS).
The varsity on July 28 also announced the names of officials responsible for the fair conduct of DUSU elections. “The Vice Chancellor has appointed DS Rawat of Department of Chemistry as the Chief Election Officer, Satish Kumar, OSD (Examinations) as Chief Returning Officer and Anju Gupta, Director of Non-Collegiate Women’s Education Board as the Returning Officer for the conduct of 2015-16 elections,” said an official statement.
th and 12th of June. The inaugural ceremony started at 10 am on June 11 with Dr. C.P. Thakur, National Vice- President (Bhartiya Janata Party) and M.P (Rajya Sabha) and Ch. Krishan Pal Gujjar, Minister of State (Transport, Govt. of India) as the Chief Guests for the event.
The Job Fair was largely seen as an important initiative taken up by the University. “It is a perfect step towards change”, said Dr. Thakur. Krishan Pal assured that any help in the future regarding such an initiative will be provided by the government if the university somehow fails to do the same. After the inauguration, students headed up to the various stalls allotted to the companies for submitting applications and registration.
A total of 42 companies including Times Pro, NIIT IFBI, HT Media, Whirlpool, Convergys, CITI Bank came for recruitment, with around 15000 registrations for placements. The average salary offered was 1.5 Lakhs to 1.6 Lakhs per annum and the highest being 4.6 Lakhs per annum. 460 students got placed and over 13000 students got internships with various companies. The various job positions offered by the companies were in sales, customer care execution, management, content writing, finance, banking and teaching.
The closing ceremony on 2nd June saw Meenakshi Lekhi, MP (Lok Sabha) and Spokesperson (BJP) and Chaitanya Mahajan, Yuva Morcha. Utkarsh Chaudhary, DUSU Vice-President said “So far, the university has been taking decisions that are against the students, but now against this dictatorship, it has done something very significant for the students”.]]>
Amid raised slogans seeking the newly elected BJP government to roll back FYUP as promised in their manifesto, an AISA member criticized FYUP saying, ” The time isn’t the real concern, but the subjects are. The teachers aren’t trained well to be able to teach these subjects. At places, Political science teachers are expected to be teaching Mathematics related courses.”
The representatives of AISA are of the view that the second time elected Padma Shri awardee Vice Chancellor Prof. Dinesh Singh has not been able to justify neither the introduction of FYUP nor as to why it is a better structure.
The AISA has been previously involved in making endeavors to facilitate the roll back of FYUP. It conducted a referendum dated August 22nd, 2013, wherein more than 90 percent of Delhi University students had voted against the motion of four year under graduation, foundation courses and the idea of multiple exits. ( See here.)
The new BJP government at centre has given everyone high hopes of promising change courtesy the Achche din aane waale hain slogans. It’ll be interesting to see if Delhi University students too, get their share of happiness from the supposed revolutionary government.
By Bharat Mohindru with inputs from Ishaan Gambhir
