Two oath ceremonies held as student council takes charge

In a surprising development, Panjab University hosted two oath-taking ceremonies for the newly elected PU Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) today. The exercise, which was meant to be held once with the full PUCSC team, ended up being conducted twice.

The newly elected council president, Gaurav Veer Sohal, took oath in the evening in the presence of BJP MP Anurag Thakur and Dr Virendra Solanki, national general secretary, ABVP. In the morning, PUCSC vice-president Ashmeet Singh and secretary Abhishek Dagar, along with executive members Aakanksha Thakur, Kismat Palsra, Priya, Ravkaran Singh, Shivnandan Rikhee, and departmental representatives took the oath of office.

Council’s newly elected joint secretary Mohit Manderana skipped the event due to prior commitments.

Speaking on the occasion, PU Vice Chancellor Prof Renu Vig motivated the council and DRs to strive for a brighter future of university students at large. Prof Vig urged the elected council to uphold values of discipline, responsibility, leadership and service while carrying forward the vision of student empowerment.

Notably, both the ceremonies were also attended by Dean Student Welfare Prof Amit Chauhan, Dean Student Welfare (Women) Prof Namita Gupta, Associate Dean Student Welfare Prof Naresh Kumar, former DSW (Women) Prof Neena Capalash, along with faculty members and students.

Political ‘show’

Sohal took oath in presence of Anurag Thakur and others at the Law Auditorium in the evening. Anurag Thakur, while mentioning ABVP’s historic PUCSC presidential seat win, recounted the work done by the BJP government. He also took the event further by targeting the ruling AAP in Punjab over their take on PM’s special package announcement to the flood-hit state. He also spoke about the election to the Vice-President where INDIA block candidate receiving less votes than expected and the abrogation of Article 370 — making the oath-taking event a full-fledged political event.

Thakur said, “The seeds of ABVP were sown in Punjab in 1948 as the first convention was organised in Ambala. But we had to wait for years to win the president’s post at Panjab University.”