‘Undemocratic', ‘exclusionary': Student outfits condemn move mandating DUSU poll candidates to deposit Rs 1 lakh bond
From the Aam Aadmi Party's Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP) to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) to the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI) — all student bodies have termed the move as 'undemocratic' and 'exclusionary'.
This comes weeks before the DUSU elections, scheduled for next month. Calling it a 'Tughlaqi farman', ASAP leaders said it is aimed at keeping middle-class students out of the race.
'It is nothing but a conspiracy to directly block middle-class students from contesting elections,' said Kuldeep Bidhuri, ASAP's Delhi state president. He also said that if a student were to contest for all four posts, 'how will they arrange Rs 4 lakh for the bonds?'
ASAP's Praveen Chaudhary called the decision 'a huge wall erected against aspiring candidates', and asked how an 'ordinary student' could afford the deposit for what, he said, is meant to be a 'platform for service'.
ABVP national media convenor Harsh Attri said the group had met with the DU Registrar and submitted a memorandum against the decision and urging that no such decisions should be taken without consulting the students.
The NSUI, too, issued a statement opposing the order. It said: 'In DUSU elections, @UnivofDelhi has put a condition of paying a bond of Rs 1 lakh. Will you not allow children from ordinary families to contest elections?'
'The bond for MP elections in the country is only Rs 25,000. The (Narendra) Modi government is so afraid of students and their leaders that it is hell-bent on ending student union elections.'
'NSUI supports clean and fair student elections as per the Lyngdoh Committee and court rulings — but this notification is nothing more than a political weapon to help the ruling BJP's student organisation ABVP and target opponents,' said its national president Varun Choudhary.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Registrar Vikas Gupta said, 'This was part of the guidelines laid down by the (Delhi) High Court.'
Last year, the high court had rapped the university for defacement during the students' elections and had postponed the declaration of results by a month.
After summoning 15 DUSU poll candidates last year for allegedly defacing public and private property while campaigning, the high court had directed them to give an undertaking that 'they shall not deface or mutilate any public property' in the future. A bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela recorded the appearances of the 15 candidates who were summoned on October 21, the last date of hearing.
After referring to photos and videos from last year's campaign showing jammed roads, luxury cars, posters, graffiti, etc, Chief Justice Manmohan, in an oral remark to ABVP's former presidential candidate Rishabh Chaudhary, said: 'It seems you have a lot of funds at your disposal. You'll clean up.'
'We don't want to punish them as such but they must clear up the mess,' he added.
The bench recorded in its order that the summoned candidates should remove the posters, hoardings or graffiti from the campus as well as other places in Delhi, at their own expense.
In its order dated November 11, 2024, the high court had recorded that DU, vide notification dated October 30, 2024, had constituted a 'DUSU Election Reforms Committee', which submitted its report on November 8, that year. DU's counsel had informed the court that the report was accepted 'in principle' by the Vice-Chancellor. Among reforms listed in the report was a bond 'to be executed at the time of filing nomination paper to contest any post of office-bearer of College Union/DUSU for Rs. 1 lakh by the student for the act of any defacement during the course of study/election'.
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