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DUSU Elections 2017

SFI and AIDSO come together to fight ABVP in DUSU Elections

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The Delhi State Committee of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has decided to join hands with All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO), with an aim to fight against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party for this year’s DUSU election.
In a press release, AIDSO said, “We believe in forging a broader unity of the left and democratic forces.” The radical transformation of university space in DU cannot be accomplished without building the broadest possible unity of all the progressive forces in the campus based on students’ rights, which are being attacked by the ruling ABVP led DUSU in collaboration with the Central government”.
Furthermore, their statement also stated, “SFI believes Left politics wholly depends on mobilising the masses, and this can happen only by forging broad alliances of progressive political forces in the University. In pursuance of the need for a greater unity, SFI-AIDSO has come together in Delhi University Students’ Union Elections to forge an alliance of struggles.”
The student panel standing for the election from this alliance is as follows:
1. Rafat Alam: DUSU President (SFI), M.A, from Department of Social Work
2. Jitendra Kumar: DUSU Vice-President (SFI), LLB from Campus Law Centre
3. Kolisetty Lakshmi: DUSU Secretary (SFI), from Shri Ram College of Commerce
4. Roshan: DUSU joint Secretary (AIDSO), from Satyawati College.
All India Students’ Association (AISA) is the only other Left aligned party contesting the election. Earlier this week, ABVP, NSUI and AISA also released their student panels for this year’polls.

Image credits: Asian Age

Joyee Bhattacharya
[email protected]

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“DU of my Dreams”: Halla Bol by SFI

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The Student’s Federation of India(SFI) organised an event in the Art’s Faculty, North Campus on 23rd August that comprised of a protest march from the Art’s faculty towards Ramjas College, Kirori Mal College and back. This march was joined by many SFI members as well as a number of the general university student populace who wanted to voice their grievances.

The Student’s Federation of India is a student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) working towards making the University space a comfortable for the quotidian student. The march was driven by a general discourse of the various demands of the students. Some of the points raised during the meet were:

  • Scarcity of hostels accommodations and lowering of the fee structure
  • Installations of sanitary napkin vending machines in the various colleges
  • Provision of University buses
  • Abolition of gender discriminatory rules in the university space
  • Ensure hygienic environment in the university
  • Stop vandalization of University walls by electoral parties

An SFI member spoke to us saying “Government education par zyada paisa khurch karna nahi chaate. Desh bhar ki chatraye bade sapne lekar DU aate hain lekin yaha unhe ek 6×6 size ki overpriced room main rehkar padai karna pardta hain kyunki college hostel provide nahi kar sakti. Humari maang yeh hain ki education funds ko badaya jaye.” (The Government does not wish to spend much on education. Students from all over India come to DU with dreams but on getting ere they are made to live in a 6×6 overpriced room because the college cannot provide hostel accommodations. We demand that the education funds be increased.) Slogans like “Saste hostel lekar rahenge” also resonated throughout the stretch of the march.

The gathering was addressed by the Venezuelan Counsellor, Juan V. Freer who talked about the education model and the politics of a socialist country. The organisation will soon release its manifesto for the upcoming elections which is one crafted and submitted by students across 20 colleges in the University of Delhi.

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Trishala Dutta

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#BleedWithoutFear Surfaces in the University of Delhi

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Kerala government’s recent effort to ensure menstrual hygiene, the much thought out ‘She Pad’ scheme was announced last month by the Chief Minister of the state, Mr. Pinnarayi Vijayan. Subsequently, the Students’ Federation of India, the students’ wing of CPI(M) has also led a wider campaign with the tag, “Bleed Without Fear” in the University of Delhi; demanding installation of sanitary napkin vending machines.

The scene unfolded on a Monday morning was as such: the sight of the entire campus walls and trees pasted with sanitary napkins and the slogan, “Bleed without Fear.” A multitude of students from premier institutes like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and most colleges of the University of Delhi have extended their support to the campaigns led by SFI.

Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
A signature campaign has also been initiated for the same demand. This campaign is generating great enthusiasm among the students in the campus. Hundreds of students have signed up as volunteers for the campaign in the last one week.

Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
“Our demand was not only against the high GST tax on the pads, but our #BleedWithoutFear also stands for the menstrual hygienic health of the female community. Every school and college should install sanitary napkin vending machines with good quality of pads with an environment safely disposal mechanism,” said Satarupa Chakraborty, a member of SFI to the Indian Express.

Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
About a month back, more than 300 female students affiliated with SFI sent sanitary napkins to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The napkins with the slogan ‘bleed without fear, bleed without tax’ on them were sent to protest against the imposition of 12% tax as per GST.

This particular incident at the University of Delhi has been SFI’s endeavour to bring the campaign and protest on a national platform.

whatsapp-image-2017-08-01-at-22-21-10

 

 

Feature Image Credits: Prashant Mukherjee
Ankita Dhar Karmakar

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DUB News

SFI conducts referendum on CBCS, more than 90% vote ‘No’

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The Students’ Federation of India (SFI), CPI (M)’s student wing, conducted a referendum last week on the widely debated Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) which was implemented at the undergraduate level  this year by the Delhi University. The referendum was conducted through polling stations at 12 major colleges of the varsity. These included Kirori Mal College, Hindu College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, SGTB Khalsa College, Miranda House, Laxmi Bai College, Satyawati College, Satyawati College (Evening), Zakir Hussain College, Zakir Hussain College (Evening), Motilal Nehru College, Ram Lal Anand College, Aryabhatta College, Dyal Singh College, Dyal Singh College (Evening), Aurobindo College and Aurobindo College (Evening).

The students voted in considerable numbers at all the centres leaving the final vote count at 12,769. Out of the number of votes casted, 11,734 voted against the system by selecting the ‘No’ option on the ballot papers while 1,016 voted for it. 19 votes were deemed invalid. The counting was done on Wednesday evening outside the Arts Faculty by a three member teacher panel. 91.89% of the votes were against the system.

SFI, which claims to be constantly battling for a fair higher education system in the country, faced resistance from the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in various colleges as the former was eventually garnering a lot of support during the lead up to the referendum. The Federation now plans to do a nationwide referendum on the nature of higher education in the country and accordingly report the results to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Image credits: SFI

Sidharth Yadav

[email protected]

 

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