NSUI keeps to Lyngdoh’s age limit guideline,disbands JNU committee

The student wing of the Congress has also decided to fall in line with the 2006 Lyngdoh Committee recommendations for university elections and restrict the age of members to 28 years. Members of JNU NSUI,however,said the move will exclude almost 60 per cent of its current members.

“JNU is a research institute and thus different from the other state units. Most student activists across parties here are above 27,hence an exemption should be made in our case,” Linesh V.V.,general secretary of the disbanded state committee,said.

This was the stand the NSUI had taken last year when it had joined other student outfits in the university to unanimously reject the guidelines,which fixed the upper age limit of candidates at 28 years.

After the Supreme Court stayed elections at the university last year because they were not complying with Lyngdoh Committee guidelines,all JNU student bodies,including the NSUI,had come together under the Joint Struggle Committee to protest the move and seek exception for JNU.

“The Lyngdoh Committee did not take into consideration JNU’s case,where most research scholars are over 28. The NSUI,by implementing the new guidelines,will be going against its stand on the issue,” an office-bearer of the disbanded JNU NSUI said.

“This could reduce the effectiveness of the NSUI in JNU because other student bodies have set no prescribed age limit,”Linesh added.

Anish Shetty,in charge of the NSUI JNU state committee elections,said,“We are on track to hold NSUI elections in JNU by August 25,and I am in constant touch with our leaders there.” He added that there was a need to encourage a new generation of student leaders.

The NSUI recently got over with its elections in Uttarakhand and plans to conduct the Chhattisgarh elections simultaneously with the JNU elections.