No red herrings in JNU elections

NEW DELHI: After Bush''s victory, another presidential battle was being played out at the Jhelum Lawns in JNU. And it was as international in nature as the one in the US, what with an American student contesting as well as a host of international issues being debated upon.
Well over a thousand students struggled to find space on the durries to be able to listen to the six presidential candidates.
The atmosphere was charged with a lot of sloganeering from the Left parties. There was singing, too, of songs penned by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sahir Ludhianvi.
And the seven-hour session which ended at 4 am, saw a lot of debating as well. The first round saw all the candidates speak out their agenda for 12 minutes each. The discussions, unlike the DU elections, went beyond the mundane bus pass and hostel issues, touching upon everything from the US invasion of Iraq to the recent hullabaloo regarding the appointment of foreign consultants.
The honours for the most entertaining went to the independent candidate Hafeez Rahman.
Upasana, a student said that Hafeez regaled with a whole lot of shero shayari, but as far as the content is concerned, the AISF-SFI contender Sudhakar seemed pretty strong.
In the second round, each candidate was asked two questions by all the other candidates and it certainly saw some of them getting hot under the collar.
The third and final round saw the audience quizzing the candidates on their priorities.
The voting for the elections is scheduled on Thursday.