MSU commerce students pay a heavy price

Students’ fault, say university authorities. Yes, our fault, agree the students with an element of self-pity. Not an isolated incident of students’ dependence on their elected representatives, it has only demonstrated that the campus has been converted into a fiefdom of self-styled student leaders who can make and even mar careers, while the authorities merely look on.

Students depend on leaders because they do in minutes the works that usually take three days. “We went to collect the forms, but were told by the clerk to come the next morning,” Animesh Verma, a second year student of the commerce faculty, points out. The next day they did get the forms but couldn’t pay the fees.

Another student, Rajen Jani, says either they have to skip classes or wait for two to three days to get a receipt. Student leaders get this done in a jiffy. “They just barge inside the clerk’s room while we wait in the queue outside ,” says Monali Shah, a final year student. She claims the leaders take the forms themselves, stamp it, put the amount in the drawer and collect the receipt. They usually submit five-six forms together and there’s nothing those standing in the queue can do, as the clerks oblige them,” she adds.

“We submitted the forms to the leader because the submission time co-incided with our classes,” says Anand Jani, who is one of the 22.

Meanwhile, clerks don’t dare rub leaders on the wrong side. A clerk, Sonia Gandhi, says, student leaders get down to hurling abuses and even misbehaving if given the short shrift.

Another clerk says, the leaders just barge inside and start doing the work themselves.

Pro vice-chancellor Deepak Kumar De says, “We are aware the union leaders influence the clerks, who are habituated to obeying the leaders.” He says the clerks do not report incidents of misbehaviour to authorities, till things get out of hands, adding reminders not to obey the leaders are not followed.