STUDENTS' FEDERATION OF INDIA - JNU: Aug 29, 2007

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Comrade Karat's Interview on Nuclear Deal in Frontline

OUR STRUGGLE AGAINST US IMPERIALISM LONG LIVE!!

JNUSU-SSS Public Meeting on 31st Aug

ATTEND IN LARGE NUMBERS!!

VENUE SHIFTED TO ROOM NO. 203, SIS

JNUSU Notice on Lyngdoh Committee

28-08-07

Friends,

The HRD Ministry as well as the UGC have sent letters to the JNU Administration urging it to implement the recommendations of the Lyngdoh commission with regard to conduct of the JNUSU elections. The Administration in turn has forwarded the letter to the JNUSU President for a response on behalf of the JNUSU. While the formal response of the JNUSU has to await a consultative process within the student community, certain points should be mentioned at the outset.

Immediately after the constitution of the Lyngdoh Committee, the JNUSU President who was the Vice-President at that time met the Committee and expressed our views there. In front of the committee the JNUSU opined that the election process in JNU is a unique process where the entire JNUSU as well as the JNUSU Election Committee derives its strength and legitimacy from the student community and not the Administration through a continuous democratic process of debates and discussions. We urged upon the Lyngdoh Committee to consider the JNUSU election process as a model for the entire country. The history of student movement in JNU bears witness to the fact that the JNUSU elections are devoid of the use of money and muscle power which has become a menace in most of the universities of the country.
In this light, we believe that the JNUSU election process guided by the JNUSU Constitution has no provision for any interference of the JNU Administration. Therefore, the question of any such intervention in our university does not arise.
It is to the credit of the consciousness of the student community in JNU that any organization using muscle power or money power are democratically rejected by the students, which has ensured that this menace does not infect our campus. The Lyngdoh Committee or the Supreme Court’s concern regarding this becomes irrelevant in the case of our university.
As per the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee, there is an age limit for students’ to contest elections, which is 28 years for research students. JNU is a campus where majority of the students are research scholars. Hence any imposition of age limit will only exclude a large section of the student community from the democratic process of elections in our university. The committee also proposes 75% minimum attendance to be eligible to contest elections. In our university where no attendance record is officially maintained, with a majority of students being research scholars, this recommendation too is irrelevant in the case of JNU.
The Lyngdoh committee also recommends that candidates will have only one opportunity to contest the elections for office-bearers. This will completely restrict the democratic rights of candidates to contest for the four office-bearers post one at a time.
The Committee also recommends that students against whom disciplinary action have been taken by the University authorities cannot contest elections. In the last semester itself we witnessed how the JNU Administration took completely unjustified disciplinary actions against student activists. This recommendation in a sense gives the Administration the opportunity to settle political scores with union leaders.

The JNUSU Elections is one of the defining features of our University which gives our university a unique place in student movement of our country. As has been mentioned earlier, without any recommendation of any committee, the JNU student community showed utmost maturity to contest the election in the most democratic and peaceful manner, never giving any opportunity to either the Administration or the police to interfere in the election process. We are confident that this year too, the JNU students will conduct the elections in the most democratic manner, keeping up to the democratic ethos of our campus leaving no scope for the Administration or any other external agency to intervene. In this light we believe that the JNUSU Election should be conducted according to the JNUSU Constitution. The JNUSU will be shortly starting a broader discussion on this issue. The copies of the letter sent to us by the Government as well as the JNU Administration will be available in the JNUSU office from tomorrow to enable all the organizations and concerned individuals to know all the issues involved and frame their positions vis-à-vis this issue.

Sd/- Dhananjay, President, JNUSU; Jyotsna, Jt.Secy, JNUSU.