Sukhbir Badal’s portrait lends political colour to student council office at PU

Aarti Kapur

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 24

Giving a political colour to the office of the Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC), a portrait of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has been put up in the council president’s office located at the Student Centre on the campus.

During a visit to council president Jasmeen Kang’s office today, it was found that Sukhbir Badal’s portrait had been put up in his office, ignoring the fact that according to the Panjab University calendar, only the President and the Vice-President’s portraits can be put up in any office on the campus.

Sources said Kang had also asked other council members that if they wanted to put up Sukhbir Badal’s portrait in their respective offices, they could do so. Sukhbir Badal had visited the campus for the oath-taking ceremony of the council.

However, the other council members — vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary — did not agree to his suggestion stating that the student council was representing the students of the campus and not any political group.

Dean Students Welfare (Women) Nandita Singh said she was not aware that the council president had put up the Punjab Deputy Chief Minister’s portrait in his office. She said she would visit his office and ask him who had given him the permission to put up the portrait.

She said the PU was not a “state university” and portraits of the Chief Minister or the Deputy Chief Minister were not allowed to be displayed by any council member. “In line with the Lyngdoh committee norms, all students who contest the elections have to give in writing that they are not contesting on behalf of any political party,” she said.

Dean Students Welfare Navdeep Goyal said on moral grounds, the portrait of any political leader should not be put up in the council office.

Senior NSUI leader Manoj Lubana expressed surprise that a political leader’s portrait had been allowed in the council president’s office. He said this had never happened before.