Panjab University Students’ Election: As polls near, student outfits create new posts to appease members

Former NSUI leader Barinder Dhillon said: “When we used to work for the party, there used to be a sole leader. There was no big allurement in becoming office-bearers. But, nowadays every worker wants to have a tag in a student organisation. Especially, the ones working at the university-level.”

This practice is more prevalent among the student organisations that are associated with national and regional political parties as compared to that without political support, added Dhillon.

Student Organisation of Panjab University founder DPS Randhawa said: “Over the years, students have become more assertive and want their due share in the structure of organisations. They no more want to work as blind followers of their leaders.”

In earlier times, during elections, a student organisation would mainly announce a maximum of three to four persons as office-bearers. The current scenario has seen a major change in the trend, wherein the student organisations are creating superfluous designations to adjust and accommodate over ambitious student leaders.

In National Students’ Union of India, besides a president, there is a party president and one senior party president – in short three persons for the same job.

Similarly, the Student Organisation of India (SOI) is walking on the same path. It has made separate presidents of north and south campus to accommodate the workers of the organisation. SOI is yet to announce its overall president of the campus. The announcement has been delayed because of lack of consensus.

SOI Chandigarh president Vicky Middukhera said: “These kind of posts lessen the importance of office bearer in the party. It also results in groupism within a organisation, as there are too many leaders with different ideologies with no clear vision with regard to their respective student outfits.”

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad campus in-charge Kanwar Rana said: “It is a good development that more and more students want to be office-bearers. This shows that students are more aware of and wanted to have quick rise in the student outfits.”