Student leaders of today, national leaders of tomorrow
Chandigarh: Panjab University campus is abuzz with energy, political tamasha, sloganeering, littering and all the other nuances associated with electioneering. In a way, it is a mirror-image of politics at the national level.
PU has produced the likes of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Kumari Sejla, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Rajiv Pratap Rudy though all of them were not part of students politics then.
University elections are the breeding grounds of national leadership and springboards for young leaders to initiate into politics.
Outsiders are entering the campus freely, loitering around having fun, traffic around the area has gone for a toss, but nobody is complaining. Ofcourse, the police is vigilant and students from outside are being detained and questioned.
Let us have a look at the presidential candidates of various student organisations.
Harish Gujjar
Party: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)
Education: MA in Governance and Leadership (Pursuing)
About Harish Gujjar: Associated with ABVP since 2015, he has served in various senior positions of the student body, including president of ABVP’s PU unit.
Promises:
• Fellowships for non-JRF and non-NET research scholars
• Increase fellowships for all research scholars
• Create stationery and tuckshop facility on south campus
• Increase daily allowance of sportspersons
• Reinforce ‘earn while learn’ policy
Madhav Sharma
Party: Students Organisation of India (SOI)
Education: ME (Chemical) pursuing and graduated from PU in BE (chemical) + MBA integrated course
About Madhav: Has been associated with SOI since 2017 when he joined the Chemical Engineering Department for graduation. He has been active in student politics since then.
Promises:
• Generate a student-friendly environment on campus where every student can approach the council easily
• Proper hygiene in every department’s canteen and mess
• CCTVs in both north and south campus
Bhawanjot Kaur
Party: Students for Society (SFS)
Education: BA (Hons) in Social Sciences from Punjabi University, MA in International Relations from JNU, and pursuing MPhil from Department of Philosophy, PU
About Bhawanjot: Got associated with the farmers’ agitation in 2020 through which she joined SFS. After that, she participated in several protests led by SFS in the university.
Promises:
• Roll back of recent fee hike
• Restart the online portal for hostel allocation to bring transparency
• Stop ‘guest faculty’ culture at the university Increase the number of regular faculty members
• Stop corruption in the name of building infrastructure at PU
Shivali
Party: Panjab University Student’s Union (PUSU)
Education: MSc in Zoology (Pursuing)
About Shivali: An active leader in student politics, she has participated in state-level chess and badminton championships. She has also served as Hostel Mess Committee Incharge.
Promises:
Work in every sphere ranging from academics to sports
Digital classrooms throughout the campus
Better placements
Quality infrastructure
Separate sports ground for south campus
Construction of ramps for disabled students
Gurwinder Singh Kamboj
Party: National Students’ Union of India (NSUI)
Education: ME in IT from UIET, PU
About Gurwinder: National- level table soccer player, state-level taekwondo and handball player.
Promises:
All floors of AC Joshi Library open 24×7
Placement cells in all departments
Push for relative marking in UIET and UIET
Gurjeet Singh
Party: PSU (Lalkaar)
Education: BA,pursuing LLB (Hons) from University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), PU
About Gurjeet: He is a fourth year student of five-year integrated law course at UILS. He joined the organisation in 2021. He is also a member of the executive committee of PSU (Lalkaar).
Promises:
• “Revolutionise” student politics at PU
• Increase the number of hostel seats
• Stop favoritism in hostel seat allocation,
• Roll back the recent 5-10% fee hike in various PU courses
• Reduce the presence of Chandigarh Police in campus. Why? Democratic freedom gets restricted; register fake cases against students for protesting
• Increase the number of regular faculty members.
Jodh Singh
Party: Sath
Education: BA from PGGC-11, pursuing LLB from Law Department, PU
About Jodh Singh:
Jodh Singh is a national level medalist in fencing. It was the ideology of Sath that attracted him towards Sath.
Promises:
• President’s say in the Senate
• Increase the current library capacity
• Increase the number of hostel seats
Aayush Khatkar
Party: Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS)
Education: B Com, LLB and LLM (pursuing) from UILS, PU
About Ayush: He has been associated with student politics since he joined the university in 2017. Initially, he was a member of National Students Organisation (NSO), then in 2019 he moved to ABVP, dissociated himself from university politics during farmers’ protest, now in CYSS.
Promises:
Quality education
Women safety and security
Placements for every self-financed course
Improve campus infrastructure
