At the open house held on the premises of the Panjab University on Thursday, female voices bettered their male counterparts,as their speeches reverberated with thunderous applause of those gathered to witness the war of words. Ashwathy Rajan of ABVP stole the show as she made her points with impressive assertion even as supporters from both the SOPU-INSO alliance and PUSU,did their best to put her down. The only female contesting for the post of president,Ashwathy impressed one and all,when she told her detractors: These boys are scared that if a girl comes to power,they will have to take the back seat. This fear explains their vehement opposition. She followed it up with promises that included: new hostels,better library,transparency in working system at the varsity and all basic facilities needed by students. Besides Ashwathy,ABVPs vice-presidential candidate Shelly Khurana also made her points loud and clear,much in the same manner as independent candidate Meenu Gupta did. Gupta criticised PUs administrative set-up and said that students at the varsity essentially want basic infrastructure and academic-related developments. Deepika Thakur of SOPU-INSO alliance,however,failed to cast her oratory charm today. Other speakers,meanwhile,engaged in mudslinging. PUSUs presidential candidate Arshbir Singh Johal criticised the SOPU-INSO alliance,in response of which Amit Bhatia,presidential candidate of SOPU-INSO alliance,said PUSU suffers from the same fallacies. The SOPU-INSO alliance has Amit Bhatia contesting for the post of president while Deepika Thakur is in the fray for the post of general secretary. PU authorities were at the hit list of all parties: More than allegations and counter-allegations between parties,this years open house saw Panjab University face the flak of the orators. The issues included: * Investing Rs 3 lakh for a bridge at Students Centre. * Installing neon lights and spending lakhs on maintenance of gardens * Poor security on campus,despite the huge money invested * Loopholes in the re-evaluation system of PU.
