First woman student president uncertain about her future

Richa Singh, the first woman president of Allahabad University Students’ Union (AUSU), should have been celebrating Women’s Day this year.

Instead, she is apprehensive of her future on the campus.

“Today, I can understand what Rohith Vemula went through and why he committed suicide. Suddenly I am being hounded by the university officials who have launched an inquiry against me regarding my admission as a Ph.D scholar. This is what I get for raising my voice against the ABVP, BJP and the RSS,” she said.

Richa had contested the students union election as an independent and was later supported by the ruling Samajwadi Party. When she won the elections, history was created because she became the first woman president in the history of the university.

However, trouble began after her election last year when she did not allow BJP MP Yogi Adityanath to address a meeting on the campus. In January, this year, when Richa invited senior journalist Siddhartha Vardarajan for a lecture in the University, ABVP activists forced its cancellation on the grounds that the journalist was a “controversial man with a communal mindset”. Later, the university set up an inquiry into her admission and Richa wrote to HRD minister Smriti Irani saying that “the V-C has constituted an inquiry committee into my admission, almost two years after my admission for Ph.D.” She did not receive any response. The vice-chancellor, Prof. R.L. Hangloo, has ordered an inquiry into how the reservation policy was not followed for Richa’s admission as a Ph.D scholar. Richa claims this is a completely baseless order. “Another student (also an upper caste) and I got enrolment. There were only two seats. The reservation rule does not apply when the admission is for four seats or less.”

The inquiry is nothing but an attempt to throw me out,” she said.

Richa further said that there was a deliberate attempt to find a foothold in educational institutions controlled by the Centre before the UP Assembly elections and she was a pawn in this game.

So far, the Akhilesh government has maintained a studied silence on the issue and a senior UP minister said that since the Allahabad University is a Central university, the state government cannot interfere in its matters.