Thursday, January 13, 2011

My Election Manifesto for the Girl Students at AMU


Women Students’ Charter of Demands


With the AMU Students Union Election of 2011 we can witness the history in making. Since the first elections held in 1920, the present AMU Students Union election has made a giant leap on women emancipation in the campus politics by including the students of Women’s College. Today women students bear a greater responsibility to select the right candidates so that their ignored issues hitherto shall be fought with greater vigour.

Equality in Education:

1.       Free and equal access to AMU’s resources: Authorities should not discourage women students to avail the facilities of the   University.

2.       Living/residential spaces to women residents in hostels should be increased. There has been great discrepancy between the spaces available to boy and girl students. UGC Grant to AMU of Rs. 8 Crore for Girls Hostel should immediately be utilized.

3.       More reading rooms in the Women’s hostels and more reading spaces for women students in Maulana Azad Library.

4.       Women’s Common Rooms and toilets in every department.

      Equal facilities of sports in the University and for out- of University sporting events. 

      Equality of opportunities to attend National/Inter-university youth conferences, events, tournaments.

Make AMU safer for women:

5.       Stringent mechanism to deal with sexual harassment of women students in the campus.
6.       
     Ensure proper functioning of Women’s Cell/ Complaints Committee in the campus like in other Central Universities where complaints on harassments of girls are dealt seriously.

7.       Women’s cell should be constituted & guided by proper rules and guidelines. 
    AMU should make public the rules and guidelines of the Women’s Cell. Women’s Cell should notify, publish and circulate/ express prohibition of sexual harassment. 
   
    Womens Cell should put to wide publicity its contact details about office and the contact numbers of the functionaries so that immediate complaint could be made
      
     Registrar & Proctor should not be part of Women’s Cell in AMU as they protect those powerful persons who are accused of Sexual Harassment.

8.      Cell should not function in private and should make its decisions public. The present Women’s Cell is ineffective and girls are made consciously unaware of its presence so that in case of any unfortunate case of sexual harassment they can’t take the official route.

9.        Student’s elected representative in Women’s Cell. The present Women’s Cell has no student representative to make it ineffective and to protect accused people.

Address Immediately the Problems faced by Abdullah Hall/Women’s College Students: 
  
 The non-professional undergraduate students of the campus face worst discrimination and violation of their fundamental rights. It is sad that there is total indifference to their plight in the campus even though they constitute the majority of women students in the campus.

Women’s College students should have access to:

 Maulana Azad Library of AMU.

1    General Education Centre of AMU.

1    Students should be allowed to attend workshops, seminars/ conferences in the University campus.
These are basic to Equal Opportunities in Education. The situation at present is gross violation of Fundamental Right to Equality guaranteed by Constitution.  
Know your rights and claim a future you deserve. Its the time to make right choice with your vote.

ABU AFFAN FAROOQUEE, BAllb( Final)
For Presidentship, AMUSU

The Fallen Shall Rise Again

Dear Friends,

Since last three and half years we have witnessed the rule of bigots, hypocrites and oppressors who taking advantage of the absence of any democratic body at the campus created havoc in the life of every student. We witnessed how freedom of speech and expression remained in the pages of our Constitution and be it Halls of Residences or Departments or even in Internet students were victimised just for their legitimate expression of the grievances suffered by them. But after prolonged struggle today we are going to witness the revival of the historic AMU Students Union whose Union Hall gifted the passage of several resolutions on local, national and international affairs ranging from creating Student Benevolent Fund to condemn the attack by British Forces on Turkish land in 1932. The time has come to take the plunge and fight back again with clear aims and objectives to bring in the real change we need at this hour of crisis.

For the last three and half years we had to hang our head in shame as our senior officials like Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Finance Officer etc constantly appeared in National Media as the faces of Corruption in Higher Education in India. Today though Executive Ordinances don’t allow Govt Vehicle to DSW, Finance Officers, Registrar, Controller of Examination, OSD still they roam in car and waste the public funds that could be used on students. They are the hypocrites who suspend students at the drop of hat citing rules. I believe the Union of my dream will put a regulatory mechanism to check on the use of public fund through democratic scrutiny by enforcing rule of law for senior officials. Our motto will be either follow the rule or leave the rule off students.

Today more than 50 lack of the Scholarships meant for the Students under different funds are lying unused and our poor brothers and sisters are struggling to study for the low income in their family. The Students Union of my choice shall fight to distribute the Scholarships effectively time to time and constantly raise its voice to check on the fee hike in the AMU Admission Forms which has seen steep rise in Prof.Azis years leaving it inaccessible for many poor muslim students. In the Prof.Azis years, AMU constantly appeared in the national media for indiscriminate suspensions of 156 students against the national average of 7(No. of Suspension in every Central University) without any considerable basis. The upcoming Students Union must take up this issue and form an affective mechanism through changes in the Ordinances so that in cases of Students Indiscipline an accused student gets every opportunity to defend him properly and no Proctor or Provost or anybody can victimize by might is right theory. The Students Union of this time need to be effective, active, powerful and intelligent enough to deal with the serious cases of student victimization by their hostile teachers who fail them in sessionals or projects just for mindless vengeance by forming Academic Grievance Committee of students like in Central University of Hyderabad. The issue of Minority Character and the affect of the Special Centres on it need serious discussion and political action as we know the AMU administration repeatedly ignored the minority issue which is unfortunate.

Everything is possible with the Students Union of my dream and I believe that must be yours. What you need is just to cast your vote for me and dream through my dreamy eyes. 

2011: Hope is there in you

We have passed a year of hopelessness, a year of debauchery, a year of deceit, a year of oppression, a year of shamelessness and a year of scams. But we can never hope of a solution until and unless a problem comes on the surface. We can never expect of a dream until and unless we expect a state of slumber. We can never think of a beautiful sunrise until and unless a stormy night shakes ourselves to the core.

2010 is a year where the Indian Judiciary let the beleaguered Muslims down with a judgement on Babri Mosque where faith prevailed over law. This was the year of Wikileaks which gave a new impetus to investigative journalism with proof of American role in Civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was the year where 2G Spectrum Scam worth of Rs. 1.76 lac crore, or Food Scam worth Rs. 2000 Crore rocked the country and the collective conscience of the people of this country.

And it’s not the country or the world which faced moments of shame, the image of our own alma mater time and again get tarnished due to the allegations of corruption on the Vice-Chancellor & his team, or for their spending 43 lac on the President constituted 2-Judge Committee for probing financial allegations of 90 lac or delaying the Inquiry for 2 years, or for arbitrary suspensions of 156 students in 3 years which is unprecedented in Indian Academic History. And time and again for the Administration we hang our head in shame. Today after the 3 oppressive years of Prof.P.K.Abdul Azis regime the AMU fraternity has reached such a shameful stage of political ineptness where though students from Jadavpur University, JNU, or Jamia Milia are participating in the first Asian Peace Mission to Gaza Strip today but no one represent from AMU in the 50 member Indian team to such noble mission.

But let us pledge again on the eve of 2011 with the immortal verse by Asrarul Haq Majaj “Jo Abr yaha se utthega wo sare jahan mein barsega”. Let us believe again in the every hallowed precinct of our alma mater which inspired the generations of Moulana Muhammad Ali Jauher, Shaukat Ali, Ali Sardar Jafri and many more. Let the 2010 be the last year of our helplessness, hardship and tyranny. Let us the see the light of 2011 without the shades of the tyrants on the sacred soil of our alma mater. Come out and contribute in realising the Sir Syed’s dream of clean, uninterrupted & powerful academic environment by being part of the democratic process in 2011 to choose your elected representative in the AMU Students Union. Believe the hope is amongst you, believe the dream is amongst you, and believe we can start again.