REPORT

DRISTICON -2001 Camp At Haridwar

HARIDWAR : A three-day training camp, DRISTICON-2001, was organised at Haridwar in which 650 representatives from all over the country including the district presidents, state office bearers, district representatives, state presidents and national office bearers participated. The camp was inaugurated on 9th August by Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad. DISTRICON is organised year after year for training the district presidents and for equipping them with the Congress ideology on various issues.

'DRISTICON' camp organised by NSUI at Haridwar on 11th August, 2001. Congress President, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, seen with senior Congress leaders Mr. Gulam Nabi Azad, Mr. N.D. Tiwari, Mr. Mukul Wasnik, Mr. K.K. Sharma & Mr. Satpal Maharaj among others.

Earlier, welcoming the chief guest and the district presidents from all over the country, NSUI president, Ms. Meenakshi Natrajan, thanked the participants for attending the camp.

In his inaugural speech Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the NSUI is like a nursery for Congress party. He emphasized on the importance of college units and asked the NSUI activities to work with sincerity and dedication in the forthcoming assembly elections.

NSUI president, Ms. Meenakshi Natrajan lighting camp at DRISTICON camp. Also present in the picture are Mr. Gulam Nabi Azad and Satpal Maharaj.

The inaugural session was followed by discussion on different subjects. Mr. K.K. Sharma gave a lecture on the "Failures of NDA Government", Mr. Imran Kidwai on "NSUI - A distinct frontal organisation" and Mr. A.P. Tiwari on "Gandhian Thoughts". Each lecture was followed by questions and answers.

Mr. K.K. Sharma spoke about the UTI scam, security scam, Tehelka issue, failure of the Government in handling Kargil and Kandahar. Mr. Imran Kidwai said that being a semi-political frontal organisation, the priority of the NSUI should be in channelising the students' force towards taking up constructive programmes. The NSUI cadres should work selflessly and the focus should be only the student related issues.

On 10th August, the activities began at 6.00 am in the morning where all the participants started the day with hymns, which used to be sung by Mahatma Gandhi during the days of freedom struggle. It was followed by the "Prabhat Pheri" and "Shramdaan". In "Shramdaan" all the participants sweeped and cleaned the campus.

The session began at 9.30 am in the morning in which issues like "educational policy as envisaged by the Congress party", "social harmony and justice", "organisation and importance of college units in NSUI", "awareness on AIDS and drugs abuse" were discussed. While speaking on the educational policy as envisaged by the Congress party, Mr. Mukul Wasnik spoke about the new educational policy given by Shri Rajiv Gandhi. He said that NSUI must emphasise on the establishment of "Navoday Schools" at the block levels. He explained the difference between privatisation and commercialisation of education.

Mr. Oscar Fernandes boosted the morale of the NSUI participants. He spoke on "organisation and importance of college units in NSUI". The younger generation must take up the challenge of working for the development of society. He asked the NSUI activists to take a pledge to remain committed to the Congress ideology throughout their life.

UN Aid India Advisor, Mr. David spoke about "Awareness on AIDS and drugs abuse" and has agreed to prepare working paper on the subject. The camp circulated a questionnaire on general knowledge to all the participants which contained 100 questions covering a wide range of subjects. All the district presidents and other participants took part in it with enthusiasm. Two participants who scored the maximum marks were given awards by the Congress president in the valedictory ceremony. The third day also began with "Shramdaan". Mr. Salman Khursheed spoke on national security Mr. N.D. Tiwari, narrated the entire history of the students movement in India and Mr. P.R. Dasmunchi spoke about the ideological difference between NSUI, ABVP and SFI.

The concluding session was graced by Mr. Sonia Gandhi. The Congress president said that NSUI should take a serious note of the Sangh Parivar's agenda of communalisation of education. She said NSUI should focus its activities at the college and the university and should not copy the work style of the Indian Youth Congress. NSUI must work for the upliftment of students belonging to socially and economically backward sections. She gave away awards to the best district presidents and to the best participants.

NSUI District presidents attending the DRISTICON camp at Haridwar

BEST DISTRICT PRESIDENTS' AWARD

The district presidents who received the "Best District Presidents' Award" from the Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, at the Valedictory ceremony of DRISTICON - 2001 were :

Gyong Tie Geng (East Siang) - Arunachal Pradesh, Shambhu Mandal (Kokrajhar) - Assam, Michael Das (Sonitpur) - Assam, Shihab Uddin Ahmed (Karimganj) - Assam, Damroo Reddy (Koria) - Chhattisgarh, Choleshwar Chandrakar (Raipur) - Chhattisgarh, Shrawan Singh Vaghela (Kutch) - Gujarat, Ghulam Sarvar Rizvi (Ranchi) - Jharkhand, Chetan Ku. Pancham (Deoghar) - Jharkhand, Veerbhadra (Bangalore City) - Karnataka, Talima (Tuengsang) - Nagaland, Vijayasalan (Tuticorin) - Tamil Nadu, C. Rajesh (Coimbatore) - Tamil Nadu, Shakir Ali (Hoogli) - West Bengal, Samrat Topedar (24 Paragana) - West Bengal, Swaroop Bose (North Calcutta) - West Bengal, Ravindra More - Maharashtra, Pankaj Kharchuli - Maharashtra, Anees Khan (Panna) - Madhya Pradesh, Manoj Srivastav (Dewas) - Madhya Pradesh, Raja Soni (Balaghat) - Madhya Pradesh, B.D. Tripathi (Faizabad) - Uttar Pradesh, Abhishek Rana (Sultanpur) - Uttar Pradesh, Manu Upadhyay (Lakhimpur Kheri) - Uttar Pradesh, Lalit Farsan (Bageshwar) - Uttaranchal, Sudhir Shandil (Haridwar) - Uttaranchal.

"PARAKH" - General Knowledge Competition winners : Sunil Mishra and Fani Bhushan; best participants : Sujata Mondal and Chayanika Uniyal.

A copy of all the resolutions of the Bangalore Session, copy of the Congress president's speech at the Bangalore Session, copy of the Souvenir released at the Bangalore Session and the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi were distributed at the training camp which was guided by Mr. Mukul Wasnik and Mr. K.K. Sharma.