E-Paper
Open Houses helped define the clear winner, say nostalgic students of PU
The practice was stopped in 2010 due to violence and clashes on campus as outsiders used to come there too
Students of Panjab University are feeling nostalgic. It has been 10 years since Open House was last conducted during the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) elections in 2009. It was stopped in 2010 due to violence and clashes as outsiders used to come there too. Later, there was a constant demand from student leaders to restart the practice but to no avail.
Open House used to be conducted two days before the election date, where all presidential candidates from different parties would share their ideology, past work and future vision in a 10-minute speech. This is where the students would really come to know who their leaders were. Students say half of the election was won through this debate.
In 2017-18, the demand was again raised by the then joint secretary of the student council Karanbir Randhawa during a meeting on conducting paperless elections. However, no conclusion was reached.
Randhawa says, “Open House should be restarted. This is where one gets to know if one is competent to be a leader, and students get to know if those leaders can actually represent them in the council.”
DUMMY CANDIDATES COULD NOT BE FIELDED
Karan Gulzar, a research scholar with the Department of Indian Theatre said, “I have seen many Open Houses. It was a democratic platform where students would know how mature the candidates were when it came to elections, politics and student issues.”
He said the debates also ensured that parties could not field dummy candidates as it is done now: “Dummy candidates would not be able to debate on the issues.”
A leader of the Students’ Organisation of India (SOI), Gurpal Mann said, “I was with Panjab University Students’ Union (PUSU) when I saw the last Open House. It was a good platform to actually hear out the candidates. It used to become clear on the day of the Open House as to who will win the elections.”
Dean students’ welfare (additional charge) Jagat Bhushan said, “I really don’t know much about this as I have just joined. I was told that there were issues due to Open House. I am not making any changes in the process.”
