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15th National Climbing Competition at St. Stephen’s College

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The Hiking Club, St. Stephen’s College organised its 15th National Climbing Competition, from 31st January to 2nd February 2020. The event was a ravishing success with participation in varied categories like lead and speed climbing, between various age groups.

The Adventure Club of St. Stephen’s College, called The Hiking Club, organised its 15th National Climbing Competition. The event commenced on 31stJanuary and went on to 2ndFebruary 2020.  The event was incentivised with prizes worth Rs. 60,000, making the gymnasium of the college echo with loud cheers and hoots.

The National Climbing Competition is an annual event, which awards the player who can climb the set distance in the shortest time. This year’s edition of the Annual Competition was adjudged by Mr Rohit Solanki and Mr Chandan Kumar.

Participants from all over Delhi put on their competitive shoes while eyeing the prizes up for grabs. All participants were full of enthusiasm and eagerly waited for their turns. The results of the competitions were announced on 1stFebruary and 2ndFebruary, and they are:

In the ‘Under 16 Boys Speed’ category, Sachin Saroj bagged the first position, Manujee in the second position and Kabir won the third position.

In the ‘Under 16 Girls Speed’ category, Arshpreet Kaur emerged as the winner, and Simran Kaur and Nandini Dhir came second and third respectively.

For the ‘Open Women Speed’ category, Shivpreet Pannu got the first place, Shivani Charak and Siya Negi, emerging at the second and third place, repectively.

For the ‘Open Men Speed’, Inder Singh was declared the winner, and Bhuvnesh won the second place, while Sarvan bagged the third place.

For the ‘Under 16 Boys Lead’ category, Sachin Saroj again bagged the first place. Manujee and Vansh Bhardwaj bagged the second and third position respectively.

For the ‘Under 16 Girls Lead’ Category, Arshpreet Kaur won the first place, and Nandini Dhir came second, followed by Simran Kaur at the third place.

In the ‘Open Men Lead’ category, Sachin Saroj emerged as the winner, followed by Abhishek Mehta in the second position and Inder Singh in the third place. In the ‘Open Women Lead’ category, Shivpreet Pannu bagged the first place, followed by Shivani Charak and Siya Negi at the second and third positions.

 

Feature image credits- Gyanarjun Saroj for DU Beat

Suhani Malhotra

[email protected]

 

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Campus Central

National Politics and DUSU: Influence, Hopes, and Ambitions

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From Arun Jaitley to Alka Lamba, student politics in DUSU has revolutionised the lives of many we deem influential today. The slogans, policies, campaigns, and polling hooliganism in DUSU elections form a microcosm for the national politics.

When Franklin Roosevelt spoke about ‘building the youth’ for an uncertain future, he definitely did not have the hullabaloo of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) in his mind. Today, with over 65 years of elections under its belt, the DUSU elections serve as an apt materialisation of Mr. Roosevelt’s words.

Being a central University in a nation of over 1.3 billion people, the University of Delhi (DU) has over 1.5 lakh students enrolled in it as of 2018. When it comes to politics, a majority of the diverse student population belongs to the eligible age for exercising its voting rights. Thus, the nationally popular political parties like the Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, and Aam Aadmi Party influence the ideologies and the politics of the youngsters through their respective youth wings, namely- National Students’ Union of India, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and

Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS). Though there are provisions recognised by the Election Commission for the DUSU elections, the national political influence on student politics is evident even on the materialistic level as well. NDTV reported the controversies raised on the presence of the then Chief Minister (CM) of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, as a celebrity figure for a concert organised by CYSS in 2015. Several reports revealed the dissatisfaction of other party leaders, like Mr. Ajay Maken, who were vehemently against the endorsement and promises of a CM in student-
oriented elections.

The other aspects of this deep-rooted politics of pragmatism are manifested in the trajectory of the professional futures the representatives and members of these student wings go on to lead. Past DUSU Presidents, including famous names like Arun Jaitley, Alka Lamba, Vijay Jolly, and many others, went on to hold esteemed positions in the same parties whose student wings they represented at the student level.

It is not unusual to associate the national party’s larger ideologies and policies with their student wings. This can be attributed to account for the fact that the ruling party in Delhi finds its student wing winning majority in the DUSU elections as well. For instance, for the duration between 2000 and 2013, the Congress was ruling at the centre and in Delhi, and NSUI won 10 out of the 13 terms of University elections. The sway of ABVP and BJP in the student politics and the central politics of the nation went hand-in-hand from 2013 as well.

There is no element of surprise when one connects the pomp and show, bribery culture, caste-centric, and non- inclusive traits of the national political front to the student elections. Like their national counterparts, political ambitions drive a certain strata of the society, with funds and resources, to invest in the campaigning process. There has been an undeniable disparity between representatives in terms of campaigning and lobbying votes for the election day.

Barack Obama urged the world to wonder- “Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?” As students, it then becomes imperative for all of us to ask the bigger questions-if there is an inevitable influence, must it be from the established gamut of privileged, unrepresentative power? Should student politics feed off the flaws and negativity of our developing democracy’s politics? Or should there be a movement of change that sets precedent for the broader realm of politics?

Feature Image Credits: Adithya Khanna for DU Beat

Anushree Joshi
[email protected]

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DUB Speak

Being a Minority in India – of life, death and losing children to fake encounters

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Have you heard of Ishrat Jahan? She was a beautiful nineteen year old second year science student. The second of seven siblings, she had taken the entire responsibility of her family when her father died in 2002.  Sounds painful, doesn’t it – to be taking care of a family of nine at the age of seventeen? Well, it gets worse. Ishrat was killed in cold blood on 15th July 2004, and her body, with arms and legs wide open, lay on the outskirts of Ahmedabad for the press to photograph and for strangers to see.

Unbelievable as it may sound to the nineteen year olds reading this, but there are have been many Ishrat Jahans in this country. Many young Muslims accused and killed falsely of terrorism, many Muslim parents with no strength, will and/or resources to fight over their dead brood. In Ishrat’s case, while the Gujarat government has been claiming that she was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Narendra Modi after the Godhra Riots and was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, judiciaries of many levels have upheld that her death was part of a staged encounter. Most recently, the CBI in a 1500 page report has claimed that the encounter was fake, and has also named seven police officials in the entire fiasco.

Ishrat’s mother Shamima, despite barely making ends meet with her son’s call center salary, has decided that her daughter deserves justice. For the past nine years, she has struggled to keep her family together, going from one court to another and being overly protective of her other daughters. She has heard neighbours question Ishrat’s character, seen her son leave his studies, and witnessed her daughter being rejected to design school for being related to Ishrat Jahan – and yet, she has fought for every day of these nine painful years, and she has decided to fight till justice knocks at her doorstep. All of this, so that another Ishrat Jahan doesn’t die of being a questionable minority in India.

It’s not easy being a minority in this country. Chances are your entire community lives in a particular area of the city – it’s almost like living the life of an outcaste. You have probably seen varying degrees of stigma and discrimination throughout your life. You may have been accused of terrorism, called an outsider, experienced a riot, lost family and friends. It’s a life most of us can’t comprehend. We will never understand the family’s fear when so called journalists came to their house at 2:30 in the morning; or the heart sinking sensation they felt when someone showed them a picture of Ishrat lying dead with three men; or even how they feel when they see Narendra Modi on TV.

Can you imagine any of this? All of this is the price you pay for being a religious minority in our secular, democratic state. A feeling of helplessness haunts me as I end this piece. I realize that all we can do is hope – hope that Ishrat Jahan gets justice, hope that she rests in peace.

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Events

Antaragni: Unleash The Fire Within- 7 Days To Go

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Antaragni- Antar + Agni(hindi)-The fire within. Antaragni, the annual intercollegiate cultural festival of IIT Kanpur, is a tribute to the fire that remains kindled in the hearts of people, the fire that drives them to melt boundaries and achieve the extraordinary. The fest started as “Culfest” in the 1960’s before being rechristened Antaragni in 1993. The generic name was to emphasize the fact that it was the first and only such event at that time. Antaragni’12, with the theme ‘Medieval Fantasy’ will be held from the 11th to the 14th of October and is scheduled to be opened by the multi-lingual sensation Raghu Dixit.

Antaragni is one eclectic mix of a lot of things- competitions, professional shows, talks, exhibitions, street shows, workshops and the list goes on ad infinitum. It becomes a classic case of having too many options and one wishes to be present at a lot of places simultaneously. Competitions form the backbone of this festival. Events catering to dramatics, dance, musicals, photography, English and Hindi literature and quizzes have seen extensive and intensive participation from colleges, especially those from Delhi. The situation is such that this year two of the events (Synchronicity- Rock competition and Quizzes) have dedicated Delhi rounds.

In order to cement its position as Northern India’s favourite festival, Antaragni’12 has initiated the ‘Dream On’ campaign. It is an ambitious idea which attempts to give the winners a shot at national fame and creative satisfaction of learning from the best in each field. The winners of different competitions in addition to monetary incentives will be provided with internships, mentorships and recording deals  with leading academies like Shimak Davar’s Institute of performing arts, Barry John Acting Studio, Delhi College of Arts, Delhi School of Photography etc. In fact, Ritambhara has been especially opened to individual participants with coverage in MAXIM and photo-shoots in Hollywood at stake.

To add spirit and flesh to this skeleton of competitions, there would be national and international artists (more than 10 in number) ranging from rock bands to Irish folk musicians to sand artists to Odishi dancers. There would be fun informal activities while Mridaksh will continue its search for Ms & Mr. Antaragni. If it’s the intellect that needs simulation, there would be a panel discussion with eminent people like Arun Maira and Ayaz Memon. To take care of the glamour aspect there would the likes of Sudhir Mishra, Rajiv Khandelwal and Abbas Tyrewala who’ll have special sessions with the students.

The festival seems to be shaping up well with a holistic cultural showcase and it’s only a matter of time before, as the motto says, the fire is unleashed.

Visit www.antaragni.in and https://www.facebook.com/antaragni.iitk for more information.

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