College principals’ take on students’ elections: ‘No elections please, as they badly affect students’ studies’

[related-polls]

He adds, “The election fever has made the students rather more arrogant, they have lost all respect for the seniors. They, at times, try to fool the authorities. Recently, one of the candidates of a student organisation had filed nomination for the post of president but he was proved ineligible. His party brought somebody else with the same name claiming that the nominations were wrongly filed.”

S S Dhillon, principal of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, insists the elections consume a lot of time and affect the students’ studies. “I am not in favour of elections at all because they significantly affect the students’ academic performance. No classes take place and the students usually do a mass bunk,” he adds.

Following a stabbing incident at DAV College, Sector 10, a few weeks ago, Principal B C Josan had stated that there should be no elections on the campus as political parties had made the colleges a hub of clashes.

“Since the elections will be held in another two days and everything is under control now, I do not want to say anything which may give a wrong message to the students,” he adds.

“It is not a good practice to hold elections on the college campuses. Being a girls’ college, we do not face any problems at all but Panjab University has 188 affiliated colleges, so why Chandigarh is an exception? The elections should be held across the board or nowhere,” says Achila Dogra, principal of Post-Graduate Government College for Girls, Sector 11.

Asserting that elections bring out the leadership qualities of the students, Meera Modi, principal of Dev Samaj College, Sector 45, says that since these are held once a year, studies are not affected much. She adds that the college authorities should restrict the affiliation of students’ organisations with political parties, and entry of outsiders to the campus which will reduce the poll violence.