Students of the Jamia Millia Islamia asked the university administration to restore students’ union elections — suspended since 2006 — and declare a date for the polls before October 10.
In a memorandum submitted to Vice Chancellor Talat Ahmad, students of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) said, “We have suffered immensely for the last 11 years since students’ union was scrapped in 2006.”
The JAC — formed a few days ago to raise the demand for students’ union on the campus — has members from various student bodies, including the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, All India Students’ Association and Jamia Students’ Forum had announced about Thursday’s protest two days ago.
The students also said they had no representation in decision making bodies of the varsity and “no mechanism ensured accountability of such bodies”.
“The administrative decisions like fee hike, scrapping of paper marksheets, delay and errors in examination results have affected and made us feel powerless,” the memorandum said. The students said they would “resort to democratic means of protest” in case the varsity does not meet the deadline of announcing date for the polls.
Professor Ahmad, who confirmed the receipt of the memorandum, said though he does not have any issue in reinstating the students’ union but he cannot take a decision because the matter is sub-judice. “When the matter is in court, I cannot take decisions that would end up in contempt of court,” said the V-C, adding that the students were informed about the aspect of legal issue.
An official from the administration claimed that they were receiving representations from a large section of students who are “against restoration of students’ union as it would politicise the campus”. “Many students feel that Subject Association is an alternative and effective mechanism which is already in existence for the past few years,” the official said.
Subject Association is a representative body with students being elected as president, secretary and vice president for all 30 centres and 34 departments of the varsity, he said.
“Students feel that in the present system they know their leaderspersonally unlike in the students union — which they feel will politicise the campus,” the official added.