By Mohammed Shareef M P
It is learnt that the Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) has given a report to the Vice Chancellor (VC), Prof. Seyed E Hasnain, that the polling process that happened in connection with the Students Union election 2009-2010 should be nullified. Though an official confirmation is yet to come, re-polling for all the schools is the strong recommendation from the GRC on two grounds. The first is that the Election Commission (EC) failed in maintaining the trust of the electorate by coming up with multiple figures of polling (the number of people who voted and the number of ballots sorted out from different schools). The second point is that the EC did not take signatures of students who voted from the School of Chemistry.
The recommendation, that does not satisfy any political organization’s demands, has awakened widespread protest. The Students Federation of India (SFI) started an indefinite hunger strike in front of the administrative block at 12.30 pm on Friday, September 18, demanding the counting of the ballots polled already. This was after they made an appeal to the VC explaining the inaccuracy of the GRC report.
"Indirectly, the administration is trying to curtail students’ democratic rights in this campus,” said Shafeeque V, Joint Secretary of the SFI Committee. Abhishek Shaw, the SFI candidate for the Cultural Secretary post, added that the GRC is spineless and has failed to be objective in its approach. The appeal given to the VC states that the Lyngdoh Commission report does not empower the GRC to pass a judgment on the mood, sentiment or opinion of the students.
On the other hand, the alliance of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), Dalit Students Union (DSU) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) are also not happy that the recommendation is for re-polling and not re-election. They plan to agitate vigorously along with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) against any such decision (if it happens). Santhi Swaroop, General Secretary of the DSU Committee, said that their alliance, along with ABVP, strongly demand that all processes that have happened until now, be nullified, and action should be taken against the current EC for their irregularities.
“If the administration decides to go ahead with the process under this EC, they will face problems from our alliance and ABVP. They will have to confront vigorous agitation in a mode unseen until now,’ he asserted.
Earlier, if the conflict was between the SFI and the ASA-DSU-NSUI-ABVP group, the new turn of events have introduced another party - the administration – to the scenario. Who will have their say in the end is something only time can tell.
isn't it funny that nelson mandela is part of the hunger strike. i supposed that he is the acting/care taker president of the student union. why can not he remain a-political for sometimes at least.
ReplyDeletebipin
The version presented here is absolutely incorrect. GRC recommended to conduct a re-polling on 23 September, 2009, and informed the same decision to our Vice Chancellor. But Vice Chancellor disagreed and ordered for the complete nullification of the Election process headed by the SFI lead Election Commission, and ordered a fresh Election Process with the assistance of two faculty members as returning officers.
ReplyDeleteI am able to confidently present here the same, because, when on 19 September ABVP-ASA-DSU & NUSI team met Vice Chancellor (on behalf of DSU I was present), in his chamber, DSW and Pro VC 2 were also present, at his chamber, and on the suggestion of VC DSW read out the decision of GRC to conduct re polling on 23 September.
Later, after some hours, VC disagreed with GRC and ordered for a fresh Election process.
The whole thing in this episode is GRC did not present it's decision publicly, but only submitted the same for VC's approval for seeking permission to go ahead. But unfortunately against to the wishes of SFI and GRC the whole thing turned round!
@ Santhi Swaroop
ReplyDeleteThe reply to your argument is present in your comment itself. We posted this much before the VC came out with an official confirmation that he wants a re-election to happen. We have only mentioned that the GRC suggested a re-polling. Later developments that you mentioned can be found in the newer posts that we uploaded.