The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Thursday expelled its member and Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) president Ankiv Baisoya from the organisation pending enquiry in his alleged fake marksheet case. The organisation also asked Baisoya to quit the DUSU president’s post.Twenty-three-year-old Baisoya had won the presidential post on September 13 this year after defeating National Students Union of India (NSUI) candidate Sunny Chhillar with a margin of 1,744 votes. But soon after he won the post, the NSUI claimed his candidature was invalid as his admission in DU’s Buddhist Studies Department was done through fake graduation marksheets.Baisoya was admitted into Delhi University’s postgraduate Buddhist Studies programme on the basis of marksheets allegedly issued by Thiruvalluvar University.When asked by the media to clarify what he had studied at Thiruvallar University, Baisoya famously claimed to have studied “several types of subjects.”The university of Delhi has yet to probe the matter.“Keeping in mind students struggle, emotions and expectations and in order to maintain the genuineness of Delhi University Students Union, ABVP asked Ankiv to resign from his post and also removed him from all the responsibilities of organisation till DU completes the verification process,” ABVP national media convenor Monika Chaudhary is quoted by the Indian Express as saying.Also read: Studied ‘Several Types of Subjects’: ABVP’s Ankiv Baisoya on DU Fake Degree ClaimThe newspaper also quoted ABVP state secretary Bharat Khatana as saying, “We request DU administration to complete the verification process as soon as possible and must produce the result in public domain. We also condemn the delay done by DU in the whole process as it led to many false informations and asked the university to do the same with immediate effect, and if Ankiv is found guilty then he must face all the legal actions which are expected in this case.”Meanwhile, the NSUI called the ABVP’s latest action a face-saving attempt as it was near certain that the high court would in any case have disqualified Ankiv. AICC joint secretary and NSUI in-charge Ruchi Gupta said in a statement, “This is clearly a decision under pressure and not principle given the inordinate delay by the ABVP and in light of the upcoming HC order on the 20th…”The NSUI also demanded fresh DUSU elections and said it would pursue the matter in court if the university administration continued to be servile to the interests of the ABVP.“Finally, we are confident that Ankiv will have a long and successful career in the BJP given that he was only following in the footsteps of PM Modi (whose degree is also under a cloud and legal battle being waged to keep it a secret), former HRD minister Smriti Irani, etc,” the statement said.
