Gardener’s son is St Stephen’s union chief NEW DELHI: St Stephens is considered an elite institution but its student body no longer requires its leader to speak the Queens English. Rohit Kumar Yadav, who was elected the new president of the college students union, is the first contestant in the colleges history to have conducted his entire campaign in Hindi. He is also the first son of a Class IV staff member of the college - his father is a senior gardener - to hold a position that Shashi Tharoor once won and Salman Khurshid lost. Teachers couldnt be more chuffed. Harish mali is a familiar face - hes been with the college for over two decades - and Yadav is a final-year BA Programme student. This is the first time that the son of a Class IV employee has become the president of the students union, says college principal Valson Thampu, It is indicative of social change and also the change in the attitude of young people. Yadavs win is no fluke either. He was ahead of his closest rival by 134 votes. There were three contestants for the post and polling took place on Saturday. The Open Court - the colleges version of the presidential debate - was held two days ago and there, Yadav became the first candidate to address the student body in Hindi. In 2007, I had started a process, trying to create a level-playing field. Now Stephens is a level-playing field, says Thampu. As the ward of a staff-member, Yadav was automatically eligible for admission into the college. The children of the staff were always admitted but its great to see them becoming confident enough to contest and their acceptability rising. Clearly the snobbishness of the colleges students has been tempered, says maths teacher at Stephens and Delhi Univeristy Teachers Association president, Nandita Narain. Some years ago there was a conscious decision to admit students from a variety of backgrounds and that has changed the composition of the student body. College spokesperson and English teacher Karen Gabriel seconds that. There are students from a wide cross-section of society. And there are attitudinal changes as a direct result, she says. This is also not the first time that a contestant from a humble background has fought the election but it is the first win for one, points out Narain.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 06:12:07 +0000
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