Education, Careers & Professional News
Sewa karoge to mewa milega. Even Shakespeare couldnt
Source
toi
Date
2005-06-12
Information
NEW DELHI: Sewa karoge to mewa milega. Even Shakespeare couldnt have put it more eloquently. On the first day of the Delhi University admissions, amid the heat, dust and madness, Rajat Lamba of NSUI calmly stood at the Khalsa College reception, honing his PR skills.
From career counselling to providing free water, political parties of different hues are going all out to ingratiate themselves with the facchhas, who, as student politicians admit, constitute a major chunk of the vote bank.
We take this opportunity to introduce ourselves and our party to the students. First-year students are the real vote bank since by the time students reach second year, they just lose the enthusiasm to participate in elections, said Kapil Naagar of NSUI.
In fact, NSUI has already managed to rope in 200-250 freshers on day one itself. Last year, the party enrolled about 14,000 members during the admission season. However, most of these parties are quick to point out that winning the election is not the prime motive behind all their efforts. Students come up with so many queries on this day, they are confused, nervous – we must help them, says Sudhir Kumar of Students Federation of India (SFI). And to give the devil his due, student representatives from SFI, NSUI, ABVP, AISA, could be seen all over the campus patiently fielding queries, filling forms and offering career advice – all for the larger cause.
Nakul Bhardwaj of ABVP, says: Chunao ek matra karyakram nahi hai, matra ek karyakram hai yaar. The election is not the only activity but merely one activity. We are active throughout the year. And, student assistant booths would be there even if there werent any elections. What we ultimately want is for students to join our cadre, our ideology. ABVP had 16 helpdesks all over the city, including one for reserved category students, where they provided counselling, information booklets, among other things.
Some colleges have even made it clear to these parties that political activity will not be allowed on the college campus. At Khalsa, NSUI had organised seating, help desks, drinking water – all while sitting at a bare table, without the NSUI banner. Not that they were complaining. If we are asking them for votes and expect them to come all the way in the heat to vote for us, then this is the least we can do, says Puneet Popli of NSUI.