Nexus- of Whom?

Behind the bright lights and the glimmering of the Si Venkateswara College festival lies a dark and sordid truth, the reality, the grim reality, of hoarding, illegal profiteering and lobbying looked after and sanctioned by the greater part of the administration, the Nexus Committee of volunteers, the Fine Arts Association and sad to say, even the professors and the principal of the college. I post this information for all to see and deduce that ‘Venky’, the most reputed and elite college of South Campus is not at all free from blemish. In fact, it has stooped to the level of lobbying and dissipation suited that even Mexican drug cartels shrug their shoulders off on, and draw the line. Yes, Venkateswara College has fallen to the level of illegality and the P.A to the Principal shied off one step from accepting it.

The whole fiasco was fuelled on the third day, with the news of arrival of noted Bollywood singer Mohit Chauhan, or shall one say, a Bob Dylan rip-off because at least the photographs on the passes of the concert suggest so. The passes, and their controlled demand and supply were the chief problem of the whole situation of supposed depletion and scarcity of passes that was deliberately made possible by the administration by the controlled distribution of passes. Let it be noted that virtually no passes were distributed, even to students of the college on the day of the concert even though passes were ample in the hands of the administration. The P.A to Principal refused to distribute the passes stating that those were his ‘private….’ and then failed to finish the sentence. In his defense, he issued a statement that the passes for the concert were officially over. Let us consider also this notion for the sake of an argument on behalf of the administration. The population of people showing up for the concert reached its peak at ten thousand students flooding the huge Venkateswara ground, probably more. Each student was granted two passes in the days before the concert. Let us assume that the entire population of the college took passes for the concert, which they obviously did not. There are a total of not more than three thousand students in the college and with two passes each, they could have brought not more than two friends of theirs. That amounts to a population of nine thousand. The question to ask here is how did the rest of the thousand students gain entry into the college for the concert. The answer is through buying passes sold in black like tickets, and who the blame should go to since obviously students were not involved in this transaction- the administration.  Coming back to the statement of the authorities, as the P.A to the Principal already stated that the passes for the concert meant for students, for which student pay each semester was his ‘private…’ and since he did not complete the sentence, we will complete it for him, ‘private stash’, it was obviously funneled to the black market dealers who sold the passes in front of the college, note that, at four hundred dollars apiece and sometimes at varying prices. This illegal sale of passes for the festival directly affects the fees of the students as, on the one hand the administration and the committee of Nexus benefits from this black marketeering, on the other hand those students who are not given the passes or who are not able to avail the passes still suffer the pangs of increased fee, as every semester the college takes close to three hundred rupees for college festival that is included in the fee.

When this concern was raised to the principal, she laughingly stated that this happens every year in the college festival of Nexus but when it was stated that there is a possible involvement of the administration as well, her terror knew no bounds, her face went stock still, and the next words to come out of her pale white lips were words of rebuke coming at the allegation. It is obvious to judge by this attitude of hers of getting defensive without a point when a reasonable objection is raised and putting it into the context to the manipulated and manufactured scarcity of passes for the common students based on their college identity cards that there certainly is another nexus happening between the profiteering, greedy, lustful college administration which involves the principal and the Fine Arts Association of Sri Venkateswara College, the Nexus volunteers and the rich non-college students with enough money to buy passes at any established rate.

Who would have thought that the event which celebrates the spirit of college, of Delhi University, of its intellectual acumen and inherent goodness but what instead is celebrated is the greed of certain individuals in high station, the misuse of the power they enjoy, the cunning of those people who exploit decent college-going students for mere money. And there are various examples of tickets being sold at high prices that students ought to avail free of cost. Sources indicate that a person in the English Debating Society announced among his peers that he would sell tickets at two hundred apiece and that he had more than twenty passes.

On the face of it, the event Nexus seems like an innocent and decent event for college students to attend but at the heart of it lies another dark and deceitful nexus, that of the administration and the mafia, we should say, that deuces the common students through crony capitalism or a web of corruption at the centre of which are stuck the mass of unconscious students falling prey to the Black Widow who spins the web from her venomous spit knowing full well that she is above all else. The only way to fight for your survival is by bringing out the truth and speaking of it in a loud, bold, vociferous manner for all to see and all to judge. The students have their power in unity and united they can overpower the tyranny of oppression imposed on us by the tyrant college administration. 

This is a call to arms, but your idea shall serve as your ammunition and your anger as your flag against the powers that be. The student population needs to judge the wrongdoings of the committee and the college officials, take matter into our own hands, punish those who have wronged us and reach a common collective verdict on this very serious and very crucial matter that lies before us.  We ought to indulge in it elementarily and unweave the whole conspiracy thread by thread. Only then can we claim our stature as students because after the principal and her cronies have pulled wool over our eyes, we have been reduced to mere herds of sheep that will go to slaughter at their most meager command. They think so, but, we, as students, as future intellectuals beg to differ and we will compel the administration, compel you to take a note of the unfairness that has been meted out to us and we will turn the scales to our favor. We will toil for that, we will bleed for that, we will fight for that and will bring, you, the administration down to your knees for that. Do take this matter seriously because it is not just a matter of the campus festival that comes and goes, it is a tyranny, a molestation that exists in our daily lives. We need to fight for our right till the end. Join a united struggle and a discussion on this matter so that the judgment could be taken further by and for the students.

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