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.
