15 elected to PU Syndicate

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, December 24

Within five months of unanimously electing Panjab University (PU) Syndicate unopposed, its members got divided today after polls for choosing the new House were held. The voting trend in the election clearly showed differences between senior fellow Satya Pal Jain, former city MP, and Additional Solicitor of India, and PU Vice Chancellor Prof Raj Kumar.

First election since onset of pandemic

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• First election that witnessed voting on Saturday after the onset of the Covid pandemic
• Majority of fellows voted in the Syndicate election
• Amid allegations of corruption against the Vice Chancellor, meetings of the new House will likely witness more high voltage drama
• In last Syndicate, majority of members were nominated senators, while seven were PU faculty members from campus

In July, this year, members backed by Jain were handpicked for the Syndicate unopposed. However, after today’s election, two new groups – one headed by the Vice Chancellor and another of anti-Vice Chancellor lead by senior fellow Jain – emerged to run the House.

The election to choose the 15-member Syndicate from six faculties including, languages, medical sciences, law, arts, combined faculties and science, remained a neck-to-neck fight. While members from faculties of languages and sciences were elected unopposed, those from other groups were elected through voting.

As the sun set, the elected members started extending their support to one of the two groups consequently leading to division of the House. “This is a clear jolt to the Vice Chancellor, especially at the time when allegations of corruption are being levelled against him. Earlier, the House was believed to be a single group and running smoothly. However, in a last meeting, differences were clearly seen between the VC and some members. Even complaint letters were sent to the PU Chancellor mentioning every detail,” said a fellow.

Women’s representation drops in new House

The previous Syndicate had six women representatives. However, this time, the House will have only one woman representative. Dr Kiran Deep, who is said to be from the Jain group, was elected unanimously from the sciences faculty.

“Both the groups should have given preference to women’s representation. It has been claimed that at least three members were re-elected from the VC group, which also presents a distrustful image of the House,” the fellow said. Also, it will be interesting to see the equilibrium of the new House in decision making.

Equal members in both groups

Sources claimed that both groups have equal number of members and one fellow is a neutral supporter. A few believe that the VC group has a minor edge of having majority as it has silent support of the neutral member.

Function of Syndicate

According to the PU calendar, the executive governance of the university will be vested in the Syndicate, which has powers to consider and make recommendations to the Senate in matters that include appointment of Class A officers, affiliation and disaffiliation of colleges and recommendations to the board of finance. The calendar also grants power to the Syndicate to pass orders on various university matters.

New members of Syndicate

Those elected to the House include Dr Mukesh Arora and Dr Gurmeet Singh from languages faculty; Varinder Singh and Dr Shaminder Singh Sandhu from medical sciences faculty; Prof Devinder Singh and Dr Dinesh Kumar from the faculty of law; Prof Shiv K Dogra, Dr RS Jhanji and Dr Jagtar Singh from the faculty of arts; Prof Jatinder Grover, Dr Harpreet Singh Dua and Dr Lajwant Singh Virk from the combined faculties; and Dr Sandeep Singh, Dr Parveen Goyal and Dr Kiran Deep from the science faculty.