DUSU elections 2017: In Left vs Right debate, student issues take backseat in campus polls

Academic issues are pushed to the back burner, as usual. Upbeat after the victory of the Left-leaning parties in the Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU), the NSUI is hopeful of upping the offensive against the ABVP in the upcoming Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a right-wing student party, had taken control of three of the four seats in the DUSU last year.

The election in 2017 is going to have more political overtones, with the government at the Centre and the voices opposing its ideology taking centre stage. As a result, the contestants fighting for a place in DUSU, in the elections slated for 12 September, will have to combat allegations/ counter-allegations levelled against them rather than focusing on the real agendas for the election of a student body.

“Our fight is for margins, we know, this election is in our favour thanks to the trivia-like slogan-raising of Vande Mataram that ABVP is harping on,” says Vishal Chaudhury, an NSUI candidate, whose supporters are alleged to have beaten two students with iron rods in Kiroli Mal College, a few days back, allegedly forcing an independent candidate to withdraw his candidature.

As the dates for elections come closer, allegations vary from scathing to ridiculous. The most talked about being that ABVP office bearers spent Rs 22 lakhs on tea and refreshments, out of the total budget of Rs 26 lakhs allocated for the year. While ABVP office bearers counter claim, “What about the tea/coffee budget of Mohit Garid, Joint Secretary, DUSU for the last term,” an NSUI candidate. They claim his hostel room had the maximum bills paid for refreshments, while a few others attempt to offer a more logical answer.

“The budget is allocated under different categories like sports, hostels, cultural programmes, girls safety etc. Under this water tight compartmentalisation, at times it becomes difficult to spend the entire money allocated under a particular head, when we spend money for the need under some other head, it’s shown as miscellaneous category. For example, from sports category if money is spent on repair of hostels, it is put under miscellaneous category. The NSUI is misleading students about the money spent from the miscellaneous category, “ says Satinder Awana of ABVP.

“I dont think any elected body would be so foolish to spend Rs 22 lakh on tea and then show it on papers, especially after AAP was found to have spent Rs one crore on tea in one year. Do they have any official record to show it, or has the union advisory committee found such a thing, has anyone got a proof, “asks Avnish Mittal of ABVP.

Caught in the middle of allegations and counter allegations, students feel a bit confused.  “I can’t say how the money was spent, yes, I did see a few events organised by the last students body, but what we hear is not encouraging,” observes Rahul Chandani of CIC (Cluster Innovation Centre), DU said.

“It’s not about spending lakhs in a year on tea, the real issue is lack of any constructive agenda with the ABVP. They are not playing fair, there was a little dispute about NSUI presidential candidate Rocky Tusheer, he was expelled from college just for two days in 2012, later the same college gave him character certificate, now he is pursuing masters in Buddhist studies, we had to approach the courts to get his name cleared. The ABVP is trying to get all mileage of the ruling central government being right wing,” comments another supporter of NSUI.

Students are not concerned though, with either the political ideology of the contestants or the allegations. “All I know is, I had to live as PG, despite my visual impairment, because I couldn’t get a hostel seat, we need more hostels for girls, will they deliver on this account?” a simple question asked by Angchuk, from Miranda House college.