JNU students ready to yield for polls’ sake

Sept. 8, 2010 - PRLog -- At the university general body meeting convened on Monday night, a consensus was reached on exploring the option of negotiation with the solicitor general in order to get the union elections reinstated. This is a sharp departure from the students’ earlier no- negotiation- no- compromise stand.

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The resolution ( see box) — passed by an overwhelming majority of 824 votes out of the 912 polled in total — has empowered the joint struggle committee ( the JNU representative committee) to initiate a “ dialogue” with the solicitor general to get “ maximum possible relaxation from the Lyngdoh recommendations”. On October 24, 2008, the Supreme Court put a stay on the university’s union elections. This was done because the union elections for the years 2006 and 2007 were held in contravention to the recommendations of the J. M. Lyngdoh Committee.

Though several Lyngdoh Committee suggestions — such as a budget cap of ` 5,000 and the use of handmade posters — are inherent in the student union elections here, two major recommendations regarding the maximum age limit ( 28 years for research scholars) and the number of times one can contest ( only once) for the post of office- bearers were not followed by the JNU Students’ Union ( JNUSU).

While student politics on the campus is not completely dead — the last elected body has had its term a couple of times — it is definitely at an all- time low.

Tuesday’s decision is significant for if the negotiation goes well — and the outcome is endorsed by the general body — it would revive JNU’s political tradition.

“ We want our elections back. And if that means initiating a negotiation, then so be it. For two years, in the absence of a students’ union, our concerns were not being addressed properly. The administration is doing nothing about the ongoing hostel crisis,” said Sukanya Kokoty, a 24- yearold Mphil student of the university, who attended the general body meeting that ended around 5.30 am on Tuesday.

Though the majority was in favour of the negotiation, there were voices of dissent that came up during the general body debate that lasted for about six hours.

“ All this while, we were adamant on not letting the court impose its restrictions on us. How can we talk about a negotiation now? The last two years’ struggle will be irrelevant then,” said Gayatri Nair, 24, a second- year student of Mphil.

While the joint struggle community will try and get the union elections on track, the general body also passed a resolution to ask the administration to hold the polls for student representatives in the gender sensitisation committee against sexual harassment and the board of studies in the academic council.

Ramya Swayamprakash, chairperson of the election committee, said the general body’s mandate would be made public and also communicated to the administration

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