NSUI ‘denied’ permission to host national leader on campus, protests
Akashdeep Virk
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 13
The Panjab University’s National Student Union of India, student wing of the Congress, staged a protest outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office today, alleging that the authorities had refused to grant them permission to host NSUI national president Varun Chaudhary on the campus.
“We wanted to apprise students of the promises made by our party during the previous polls and their successful implementation, including the grant of menstrual leave. For this, we wanted to bring our national president to the campus so that students could interact with him. However, the authorities did not allow this,” said Dilip Choudhary, NSUI leader and party’s Chandigarh incharge.
On the other hand, according to an official source in the PU, an NSUI leader from the campus had verbally asked the authorities to allow them to invite Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring for an event they had planned for today. The campus leader did not mention anything about their national president, and no permission was sought in writing, the source said.
The development comes after the university and Chandigarh SSP’s directions to students to refrain from inviting political leaders and to only contest on student issues. “We will not provide a platform to political leaders. The party office-bearers can come to the university, but cannot hold a political function,” said Dean, Student Welfare, Amit Chauhan.
Ex-SOPU leader in varsity
In a parallel development, the Student Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) invited its former president Dalvir Singh Goldy Khangura and organised a press conference at a Student Centre’s coffee shop. Khangura had remained a PU student council president for 2006-2007 session and a Congress MLA from Dhuri from 2017-2022. He had shifted to Aam Aadmi Party a few days before the Lok Sabha elections this year.
During the press conference, Khangura claimed that his visit was a non-political one and he was not here to campaign.
