The scheduled visit of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to the campus on Thursday has left the Panjab university campus student council divided. Besides, even the students don't seem much enthused over the idea.
Though the National Student Union of India (NSUI) is busy organising the visit and has made arrangements for 100 buses to ferry students from the affiliated colleges all across Punjab, the alliance partners of PUCSC have questioned the visit.
The present student council is an alliance between Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU), Student Front of India (SFI), Student Organisation of India (SOI) and the Haryana Student Association (HSA). Both SOI and SFI are objecting to this interaction. Punjab SOI president Gurpreet Singh Raju Khanna said: "We had joined hands with SOPU for a strong student union on the campus. We are not with them in welcoming Congress general secretary, nor are we interested in such events. It is in a way politicising education."
Also objecting to this interaction, SFI said it would not allow such functions to happen. Both the parties have given a memorandum to vice-chancellor Prof Arun Grover in this regard.
{{/usCountry}}Also objecting to this interaction, SFI said it would not allow such functions to happen. Both the parties have given a memorandum to vice-chancellor Prof Arun Grover in this regard.
{{/usCountry}}Sources said the aim behind this interaction was to demand central-funded status for the university. During his interaction with the students, Rahul Gandhi would be answering around 100 questions, which the organising committee has already started working on. It is learnt that former varsity vice-chancellor Prof RC Sobti will be a part of the function.
At the same time, the students too are not much excited about Rahul Gandhi's scheduled visit.
PUSU to stage dharna
The Panjab University Student's Union (PUSU) has questioned the wisdom of authorities in allowing a political function to be organised on the campus and threatened to hold a dharna to oppose the function. In a statement issued on Tuesday, PUSU leaders said anxious students, apprehensive that their movement and freedom would be curtailed over Rahul's security concerns, had approached them for taking up the matter with the university authorities. "If the permission is not immediately withdrawn, we will hold a dharna and gherao the vice-chancellor," they added.