DU’s newly-elected president of ABVP embroiled in ‘fake’ degree row

Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 18

Newly-elected president of Delhi University Ankiv Baisoya of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has been accused of furnishing a “fake certificate” of Thiruvalluvar University for securing admission in MA in Buddhist Studies in Delhi University.

The Congress’ student wing NSUI alleged that Baisoya of ABVP had submitted fake mark sheet for taking admission to MA in Buddhist Studies in Delhi University, an allegation rubbished by the right-leaning ABVP calling it nothing but a “slander campaign” by the NSUI.

The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) released a letter from Thiruvalluvar University sent in response to a communication from the student's body.

It stated that the BA certificate submitted by Basoya from the university is fake.

The NSUI said a marksheet was presented by Baisoya for taking admission in MA (Buddhist Studies), but the Thiruvalluvar University clearly refused to have enrolled a student of such name and a marksheet of that serial number is not in their record.

In a statement, the ABVP termed the NSUI allegation a propaganda.

National media convener of ABVP Monika Chaudhary also questioned the authenticity of the letter.

“Delhi University has all the right to verify documents of not only Ankiv rather they must verify documents of all DUSU office bearers to stop rumours in future,” she said.

“Delhi University gave admission to Ankiv Basoya after due verification of its documents and it’s the process of the university. Even today DU has all the right to verify documents of any student enrolled in university.  But it is not the job of NSUI to provide certificates to any person,” the ABVP leader said.

However, NSUI’s national secretary Saimon Farooqui claimed, “The mark sheet (copies of which were circulated on social media) was presented by Ankiv Basoya for taking admission in MA Buddhist Studies. The university clearly refuses to have enrolled a student of such name and a mark sheet with such serial number is not in their record.”

The ABVP is following the footsteps of their parent organisation RSS and also BJP where the candidates contest and win the election by “unfair means”, alleged the NSUI leader.

The development came a day after the Delhi High court directed the Delhi University to keep secure the EVMs used in the recently-conducted DUSU elections on a plea by three candidates of the NSUI suspecting a “rigging” in the DUSU results.

The NSUI has alleged that while seven EVMs of the total 126 used in the DUSU elections were missing EVMs had been tampered to favour the ABVP. The DUSU chief election office had admitted to glitches in some EVMs on the counting day following objections raised by the NSUI candidates followed by the counting being stopped for several hours on September 13.

On the latest allegations of fake degree by the new DUSU president, the DU administration could not be reached for comment as of now.