DU poll-icy says no to razzmatazz

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Students during a campaign in the college campus

With Delhi University Student’s Union (DUSU) poll just a week away, most colleges should have been buzzing with election campaigns. But the ban on all rallies in the Delhi University campus, and the campaign budget ceiling of `5,000 has left the contesting candidates with limited choices.

The contesting candidates are feeling the money pinch, and find their hands tied by the budget. “Just travelling to the 52 colleges that come under the Delhi University Students’ Union eats up a lot of money. Other campaigns come later. It’s difficult for us to manage in such a low budget. The authorities must have had their reasons to reduce the budget, but they should have understood the problems the candidates face,” says Rohit Chahal, state secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
Arun Hooda, an ABVP member and a student of law, who is contesting for the post of the DUSU president, is upset about the new directives. “It’s getting really difficult for us to manage with such a low budget. Earlier, we could have at least asked friends to come along with us for campaigning. But now, beside the reduced budget, we have also been told to be accompanied by not more than four people. That’s worse,” he says.
Despite the new crop of problems, some candidates are just going with the flow. The media convener of NSUI, Amrish Pandey, says that they can’t disobey the orders. “College politics is just about our passion. It’s not too serious an affair. So, even when the resources are limited, we should be able to happily pull through. It’s difficult, but we are trying our best to manage,” says Amrish.
A DU student who has been an active participant in college elections says, on condition of anonymity, that the new rules gel well with the low budget. “With just handmade posters to be used for campaigning, and only a handful of supporters allowed, the amount that we require automatically comes down. I think it’s a planned strategy by the authorities to make college students’ interest in politics climb down a notch or two,” he says.
But some look at the other side of it. Sunny Kumar from AISA (All India Students’ Association) says that a bigger budget helps smaller parties like theirs. He says that for candidates from smaller parties or independent candidates, there’s no support from any parent party, thus making it difficult for them to manage. “The management reduced the budget with a noble intention. But somehow it’s not working in our favour at all. Most of us outsourced the hand-painted posters. While a printed poster can come for `2, we have to pay `10-`15 for a hand-painted one. I’m not sure of the candidates belonging to the bigger parties, but we are suffering. Hence, we are changing our campaign plans to cut cost,” rues Sunny.