DUSU polls: student outfits promise visit to Ayodhya, scholarships

The three major players in Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections — Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), and the Left panel comprising All India Students’ Union (AISA) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) — released their manifestos on Saturday for the September 27 polls.

While the ABVP has promised the students a free trip to Ram Mandir in Ayodhya to “help students connect with their culture”, the NSUI has assured scholarships to those from the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities. The Left panel has talked about placing elected representatives in the internal complaints committees (ICCs) of the various colleges.

All three manifestos address issues such as fee hikes, limited hostel infrastructure, and Delhi Metro concessional passes for students. The student outfits also released separate manifestos for women students.

‘One course, one fee’

The ABVP, which dominates the student body with three members, promised new women’s hostels, internship programmes, and special buses for students in its 11-point manifesto. The student outfit said it had already started special buses for students in North and South Campuses with a ₹70 lakh fund. It proposed a “one course, one fee” policy for postgraduate students.

The RSS-linked student organisation, which has fielded three men and one woman for the central panel posts, also promised to organise self-defence training for women.

The NSUI, which holds one central panel post, promised menstrual leaves up to 12 days per semester, reversing fee hikes, preventing paper leaks, and ensuring functional ICCs.

The AISA-SFI alliance, meanwhile, pledged an “alternative model of politics”. “DU has been faced with a relentless fee hike across its colleges. The shift away from a grant funding model to a loan-based model for financing the university has created a crisis in the education model, the brunt of which is borne by students who aspire to join DU,” read the statement by the Left panel. In their 15-point manifesto, the Left panel, which has nominated three women and one man to the central panel posts, talked about providing a disabled-friendly campus and gender-neutral toilets, and conducting gender-sensitisation workshops across the university.

Published - September 22, 2024 12:23 am IST