In elections held days before, a panel of candidates belonging to various left-affiliated organisations are predicted to have won, results withheld due to Delhi HC order
Image Courtesy: The Quint
The Student Federation of India (SFI) has called upon the students to “reject completely” the notices sent out to all Election Committee members by the Dean of Students (DoS) office in which it has threatened action on purportedly breaking Lyngdoh Committee Rules.
The left leaning students’ body alleged, “Since the starting of the Election Process, the DoS Umesh Kadam has sought to overreach beyond the defined role of the GRC. In the name of the Grievance Redressal Cell, he has sought to illegally issue circulars. The sole objective has been to create obstacles and hindrances in the electoral process.”
The students of JNU have been given safeguards by the Supreme Court of India, in that it mandates that there should be a student led Election Committee chosen by students through the democratic process enshrined in the JNUSU constitution.
The statement said, “This is exactly what is unpalatable to the Sanghi administration because in spite of their dirty tactics year after year, the student community has comprehensively rejected the ABVP. Hence, since last year when Mr. Kadam did not notify the JNUSU on spurious grounds to this year, the aim bas been to destroy the institution of JNUSU.”
The Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ Union elections held on September 6, 2019 saw an overwhelming presence of students. A total number of 5762 votes were cast, which comprises a whopping 67.9 percent of the students’ body. After several disruptions in the counting process, it was completed merely a few hours back but the Delhi High Court has ordered a stay on the announcement of results. The petitions were filed by JNU students Anshuman Dubey and Amit Kumar Dwivedi and one of their grievances raised by a petitioner is that the election commission of the university has reduced the number of councillor seats from 55 to 46.
However, the students had alleged that there were efforts to “subvert the mandate of students.” Reportedly the election process was stalled “keeping in mind the safety of the ballot boxes that carry the mandate of students.” Students say that the administration tried to interfere in the counting process by trying to intervene through GRC. They have also alleged that there has been a considerable time lapse of more than nine hours in the commencement of the counting process.
Though the results have been withheld because of the HC order, the initial trends have indicated as weeping victory for the left alliance. The EC handed over the complete result in a sealed envelope to the Dean of Students following the court’s notification over the “deadlock situation” during the counting process. A decision will be taken after September 17, following the hearing of a few petitions accusing the JNU EC of violating the Lyngdoh Committee rules. The turnout rate was recorded at 68%.
The trends so far show that the Left Unity, who fielded Aishe Ghosh, has swept all four posts.
The electionsthis year were watched for the tough fight between candidates from different students groups. In a key development for this year’s alliance, all the four left leaning students’ groups active on the campus, had formed a pre-poll alliance.. Left Leaning Students Groups i.e. Students Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), All India Students Association (AISA) and All India Students’ Federation (AISF) joined hands to contest the elections. Their key opponent in elections is RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
This year’s presidential debates saw some key issues being raised by the candidates. Some of these are abrogation of Article 370, the constitutional provision granting the state of Jammu and Kashmir a special status, the Amazon fires, NRC high fees charged for professional courses like MBA and engineering programmes, freedom of speech on campus and attacks on minorities. The names of the students’ candidates were announced on August 28, 2019 by the JNU Students’ Union Election Committee. The SFI unit president was also allegedly attacked by ABVP members.
The biggest assault on the election process came after polling day. The stay on the election results as clearly on its operationalization and the notification of the JNUSU, not on the counting. However, the JNU admin through the GRC threatened and coerced the EC to try and make the counting process non transparent and tried to send in partisan Sanghi faculty as ‘GRC observer’s to the Counting area. This was a blatant ploy to rig the election. The move was defeated after students mobilised and gave confidence to the EC to have counting in the normal way. Since the trends indicate a comprehensive rejection of the ABVP, back channel illegalities are being used to coerce the EC and the students mandate.
We warn the DoS to not overreach and misuse his authority. The notice is the last ditch desperate effort of an admin whose tactics have failed.