ABVP’s vocal face Ayesha its first Muslim candidate for Hyderabad Univ top post

The ABVP’s move has put Ayesha in the limelight, pushing aside various burning issues — ranging from student amenities to fellowships — to the margins of the poll discourse in the UoH. The ABVP is contesting the polls in alliance with the Seva Lal Vidyarthi Dal (SLVD).

Aayesha, a PhD scholar in the Chemistry department, hails from Visakhapatnam and is currently the vice president of the ABVP unit on the university campus. Even as rival student organisations call her candidature as “token representation” and “minority appeasement”, the ABVP maintains that she has been its “karyakarta” for several years and among its “most vocal” activists on the campus in the last two years. “Not just ABVP’s, she is the first Muslim woman to contest for the post of the president in the university’s history. She has been very active on the ground and ABVP respects that,” says Shravan B Raj, a research scholar and member of ABVP’s central working committee.

Calling her nomination a “pleasant surprise”, Aayesha, 24, says that her issues for the polls include

women empowerment, enhancement of campus infrastructure, and ensuring a harmonious atmosphere on the campus. “The nation-first principle of doing academics and activism together drew me to ABVP. I can attest to the fact that ABVP provides space for socially committed nationalist student activism. I represent the inclusive nature of ABVP,” she says.

Among the problems that the students face on the campus is deterioration of infrastructure

such as mess, hostel buildings and street lights, Aayesha says. “Students are forced to stand and eat in the mess, the hostel rooms are unliveable — and unchecked growth of bushes and shrubs are making public spaces dangerous. Furthermore, there is uneven infrastructure between the north and south campuses. There is a demand for libraries, gyms, and sporting facilities. Connectivity between North-South and East campuses are also among students’ concerns,” she says, criticising the incumbent SFI-ASA-led students union which has been at the helm since 2018.

As the only woman candidate running for the president, Aayesha has promised to install sanitary napkin vending machines in various departments, hostels and public spaces, while proposing

menstrual leaves and attendance relaxation for female students. Claiming that nationalist groups are “misunderstood” and are “victims of fear-mongering”, she has proposed to set up a “Samajika Samarasya” (social harmony) centre on the campus.

Her opponent, Ateeq Ahmed of the SFI, however, says that the UoH students will see through the AVBP’s “token Muslim representation”. “The issue is not about Muslim or women representation. SFI has pioneered that cause. The president has to address issues of all 6,000 students and students know our track record and struggles we have led,” Ateeq, a PhD scholar in the Urdu department, says.

The SFI-ASA-TSF panel is fighting against reduced funding to the university — which has led to a fee hike and introduction of self-financing courses — besides pressing for proper implementation of reservations. “We have been against all anti-student policies of the governments and hooliganism of ABVP on campus. They (ABVP) are just trying to wear the mask of progressiveness as no other student organisation would ally with them. This will backfire,” says G Mohith, general secretary of SFI’s campus unit.

The lack of representation of Muslims in the students union panels has been a heated topic of debate, says Faseeh Ahmed of Fraternity Movement. His organisation is part of the Alliance for Social Democracy (ASD), which comprises the Dalit Students Union, Muslim Students Federation, Bahujan Students Federation, All India Students Association, and All India OBC Association. “After being in the union for years, SFI is still calling for resisting the ABVP on campus. It is their failure,” he says. ASD’s presidential nominee Umesh Ambedkar says that his panel of candidates will work against rising intolerance and attacks on the marginalised. “While the fee is being hiked, there is no hike in fellowships. There is no proper implementation of the reservation policy. There are many infrastructural issues. The campus atmosphere is turning intolerant day by day,” he adds.

The Congress’s students wing NSUI has offered four “guarantees” to students this time. Its presidential nominee, Amal Jose Philip, says his panel will work for the recognition of student societies and clubs, hold cultural events, work on a policy for gender and sexual minorities, and upgrade the library, apart from introducing a standard operating procedure for running hostel messes.

The UoH was established in 1974 as a central university. Nearly 5,300 students, from Integrated Masters courses to those pursuing PhD, are eligible to cast their votes in the students union polls.

Although the current Telangana Assembly polls and the Model Code of Conduct have cast a shadow on the UoH polls, the varsity authorities decided to go ahead.

Unlike previous years, the presidential debate ahead of the UoH polls, held on the campus Tuesday evening, was conducted closed doors and was streamed online.