National Students’ Union of India wants ‘eminence’ tag for Delhi University

NEW DELHI: National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) wants the ‘Institute of Eminence’ (IOE) tag for Delhi University. In its agenda for DU Students’ Union (DUSU) elections released on Monday, it has also included free laptops for first-year students and slashed canteen rates.
According to Fairoz Khan, NSUI national president, the funds that come along with the IOE tag will be useful for a central university like DU where students from all backgrounds look for educational opportunities both at undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) levels.“We will force the Modi government to give DU the ‘Institute of Eminence’ tag,” said Khan during the launch of the election agenda.
The Congress-backed students’ group also said the university had procured several laptops for first-year students at the start of Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), but had taken them back after the programme was scrapped. These laptops, NSUI claimed, are currently stacked in Cluster Innovation Centre, gathering dust. NSUI promised to get these laptops for first-year students if it comes to power.
Similarly, the group also promised to keep up its fight for a student metro pass and cheap-but-good-quality food at the canteen. “So many government organisations have these canteens providing good food at cheap rates. We want DU canteens to also start giving thalis for Rs 10 to the students,” said a student leader.
The group also wants a student rights’ commission to put their issues on fast-track. It has proposed to hold programmes for women leaders who will be mentored by former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
Although NSUI and the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishar (ABVP) have so far been the two major parties in the DUSU polls, the return of AAP’s student wing, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), the two-party dynamics may change this year. CYSS has entered the election race after a two-year hiatus.
NSUI, however, is not worried. “What has CYSS done in the past years to show for itself? It will be campaigning on the basis of AAP’s works. It has come after a two-year silence, and we know what had happened that last time it had contested,” said Ruchi Gupta, NSUI in-charge.
Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, launched in 2014, had contested the DUSU polls in 2015, but could not win a single post.