In a bid to reach a wider audience, the Office of the Chief Election Officer for Delhi University Students’ Union elections, V.K. Kaul, had given the candidates the provision of uploading their electoral speeches on the university website and community radio.
The deadline for submission of the speeches was September 7. Despite going to the polls on Wednesday, none of the candidates uploaded their speeches on DU’s website. The development comes at a time when DUSU elections already do not boast a culture of holding debates.
To a question on the reluctance to avail this opportunity, NSUI national incharge Ruchi Gupta said on Monday: “DU culture is different. How many students actually use the [DU website and community radio] portals? If they would have given a portal used widely, we would have surely uploaded it [the speech].”
For AISA’s DU president Kawalpreet Kaur, this is just the administration’s way to evade an actual presidential debate “for which we have always been very vocal”.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s Monica Chaudhary claimed the ABVP was “very occupied with campaigning” and ended up “missing the deadline”.
Pamphlets galore
The campus is flooded with pamphlets carrying the names, organisations and ballot numbers of candidates without any definite reference to agendas.
This leads to a situation of unawareness on the part of students regarding the picture of electoral politics in DU.
However, all contesting organisations said they are very active on social media, through which they disseminate information among the students.