Students hailing from north-eastern States in Delhi University (DU) have reportedly alleged that student leaders do not pay heed to their problems and use them only as "vote banks".
Some NE students have also alleged that the student bodies leave very less scope for them to represent student politics or to contest elections. "It's vote bank politics, they are only concerned about their narrow political gains rather than resolving our problems and almost everyone is reluctant to give us due representation within the party set-up," The Statesman quoted a DU student from Assam.
Another student from Tripura said, "Contesting student body elections is still a distant dream for us. As far as our proper representation in these bodies is concerned, with only a few exceptions, no other student wing caters to it."
However, leaders of student unions deny such allegations and claim that they give equal scope to the north-eastern students to contribute in the student elections and decision-making.
"We give proper representation to students of northeast in our organisational setup and they have a significant say while policy and decision making is done. They constitute not only our grassroot volunteers but also among the top decision making bodies. We are constantly striving and encouraging them so that they can actively contest the elections also," the report quoted national vice-president of NSUI, Amrita Dhawan.
Another member from a different student union said that their party always pays attention to the issues of North-eastern students in DU but also asserted that a lot needs to be done to bring in unity.
"A lot is to be done to make all realise that our brothers and sisters from northeast are an integral part. I think that every student wing, despite political differences, should contribute in resolving the issues confronting the northeast students. SFI always stands for their cause and we have a huge support base from north-eastern students," SFI member Prashant Mukherjee said.
