JNU polls: Najeeb Ahmed key issue for all candidates
The battle lines are drawn for this year’s Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) elections with every student political group announcing their candidates for the polls scheduled on September 8.
The major issues raised by the presidential candidates of all the groups, was the disappearance of JNU student Najeeb Ahmed and the massive seat cut in research courses following the UGC notification 2016.
Three Left groups — All India Students Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Students Federation (DSF) — have joined hands to beat the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The ABVP managed to win a seat after 14 years in JNU.
Interestingly, all the political groups have fielded female candidates for the top post. The left alliance has fielded Geeta Kumari, former student representative in JNU’s sexual harassment committee— Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) as its presidential candidate.
In her campaign, Kumari, a second year MPhil student, speaks about the recent cases of “mob lynching,” disappearance of Najeeb Ahmed, “shrinking” space for dissent at campus and the MPhil/PhD seat cut.
“Universities are there to provide open space for debate and discussions to students but our RSS-backed Vice Chancellor has been trying to curb that space since the …read more
