Akali Dal wants elections to Panjab University senate

Chandigarh, November 26 (IANS): Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Tuesday expressed solidarity with the student organizations of Panjab University demanding elections to the varsity Senate and urged Chandigarh administrator Gulab Chand Kataria to intervene and to expunge false cases against students.

The Akali leader, who interacted with student organizations and took part in a sit-in protest at the university, called for convening a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha to pass a resolution to ban the holding of elections to demand, besides registering a protest against the allotment of land in Chandigarh to Haryana for construction of a separate legislative assembly.

Majithia, who held a copy of the Constitution in his hands during his speech on campus, appealed for upholding the Constitution and the democratic structure of the country.

He also asserted, “I would like to remind the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that one must uphold the Constitution in the real sense of the word, rather than just pledging loyalty to it. The Constitution was created to protect the democratic rights of the people; they should have the right to choose the Senate.”

Majithia commended the student organizations for rising above party lines to protest the way the central government tried to abolish the democratic bodies of the varsity, and also condemned the police action against students when they tried to meet Prime Minister Bhagwant Mann. when he recently visited campus.

While condemning the Chief Minister for unleashing the police on the students, resulting in the beating of girl students in the absence of women police officers, he said, “It is also condemnable that students were accused of non-bailable offenses .”

Majithia also appealed to all students to come together to save the institution, further assuring them that the Akali Dal would fight alongside them and also assist them in their legal battle.

He also appealed to the students to apply to the Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police and to the UT administrator to protest against the false cases registered against them.

Earlier, Ranjit Singh Dhillon, president of the Students Organization of India (SOI), highlighted how Panjab University was being centralised. He said that repeated attempts have been made to finalize Punjab’s right to the varsity, including efforts to affiliate colleges in Haryana.