the goan I network
PANAJI
A week after chaos reigned at the state’s sole varsity, and students affiliated to political wings gheraod the Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Varun Sahani, the Goa University Student Council (GUSC) elections will finally be held today.
Associate Prof Ramrao Wagh will be officiating as the Director of Students Welfare (DSW) in place of Dattesh Parulekar who is on the assignment abroad. Students from all affiliated colleges, as well as students of the University itself will elect representatives to the GUSC.
Meanwhile, a non-political students group at the University under the banner ‘Together for University’ have condemned the attack on the VC around eight days ago.
In a press note, the Cultural Secretary of Goa University (GU), and a member of ‘Together for University’, Sanmesh Shet condemned the attack on the VC by what he termed “politically motivated organizations.”
“This act not only violates the sanctity of educational institutions but puts the security of esteemed faculty at stake,” the press release reads. ‘Together for University’ along with the Post-Graduation students and Post Graduate Students Union (PGSU) have said that the incident that took place was “hooliganism under the guise of student activism.”
‘Together for University’ was formed to fight out several partisan outfits on the campus and has been democratically elected to the PGSU since 2014. The group says it stands with both the VC and Parulekar.
The group appealed to the administration to bar ‘non-student’ political workers from interfering in the affairs of the University. “Universities are places of ideas and not orchestrated chaos. Goa University is Goa’s premier institution and our Alma Mater, we will defend our institution and teachers from any outside attack,” Shet concluded.
On August 16, the day earlier set for student elections at the GU, the election process for the student council turned murky with a pitched BJP versus BJP battle forcing the authorities to cancel the polling.
The two contesting groups were both directly affiliated to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party -- Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). While ABVP is the BJP’s student wing, the BJYM is its Youth Wing.
The bone of contention between the two BJP-affiliated groups was the alleged influence-peddling by Shubham, who is the son of ex-MLA of Sanguem, Subhash Phaldesai. After the elections were postponed, the BJYM group which is backing Shubham, led a morcha to the office of Sahani protesting against the decision.
The ABVP group meanwhile alleged that the student council election was postponed at the last moment due to “political interference”.
