While all student organisations are raising issues regarding hostel facilities, revaluation and gender equality for the upcoming Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections, the All India Students’ Association (AISA) is looking out for a more inclusive way to enhance education quality. Members of the association on Thursday said that since DU is dominated by decisions made by the Executive and Academic Council, students of the union should actively participate in their meetings and get a good view of the structure of the university. “This will help them know exactly where the problem lies and deal with it accordingly,” said Sunny Kumar, Delhi State secretary of AISA while releasing their manifesto for the DUSU elections.
According to Kumar, the problem with most student unions is that they raise issues regarding the doings of the university administration, but don’t manage fixing things. “That is only because most student unions don’t know what actually goes on inside the university, in the actual decision-making cell. Earlier, the university student union used to be present at such meetings. That way they used to get a good insight into issues and protest accordingly. That would bring about changes. Just talking about an issue and putting pressure on the administration without knowing who is responsible, is pointless,” said Kumar.
The left-inclined student organisation is under the threat of losing a lot of its recently gained fan following because of the molestation charges on office-bearers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) who belonged to AISA. However, the party is trying its best to clean their name by introducing women safety as one of the key factors in their manifesto. Madhurima Kundu, presidential candidate from AISA, said that while the JNU case is something that he party has not taken lightly, they are constantly looking to improve things for girls. “The charge put on JNUSU office-bearers is serious and it is our moral responsibility to ensure that AISA doesn’t promote this kind of culture. However, whether the charges are true or not will be decided by the GSCASH. As for it affecting our election prospects, we are dedicated to ensuring a safe campus for women and are actively involved in setting up gender sensitisation committees,” said Kundu, who is in third-year pursuing Economics Honours from Hindu College.
There are three other issues of primary importance that AISA is strongly taking up this election. Kundu informed, “Ensuring that more hostels are made for students, arranging safe and sufficient transport facilities in the campus and seeing to it that the process of revaluation is reinstated are some of the issues we are seriously taking up.”