How Democratic is the wall of the democracy?

Democracy, the largest form of institutional control in the contemporary world is identified by some of its unique feature which includes freedom of speech, Universal Adult Franchise, etc. Though in its early stage, India is termed as the largest Democracy in the world.  In such a scenario, with approximately 821 million eligible voters and more than 10 crore first-time voters, college politics play an important part. It is the first contribution of our youth to this huge democracy called India. Such an event unfolds every year in the University of Delhi in the month of September with 1.2 lakh student voters voting to elect the Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) officials- the President, Vice-President, Secretary and the Assistant Secretary. DU being an important Central University attracts a large number of eyeballs during its Union’s election. Due to this, youth fronts of every large political party including BJP (ABVP) and Congress (NSUI) put in their full effort to win the 4 important posts in DUSU. Anyone can notice the widespread use of money-play to lure voters. Though banned, every wall in the University, near colleges are covered with posters of the candidates with some minor irregularity like an extra ‘a’ in Vikram- Vikraam and an extra ‘I’ in Dipali- Dipalii to avoid cancellation of their nominations. Now interestingly, there are some walls in the university area, especially in the North Campus which emerge as the hub of the DUSU politics, termed as ‘Wall Of Democracy’. Ideologically, ‘Wall of Democracy’ represents the idea of free speech and meaningful engagement with governance, politics and society in Indiaʼs most vibrant campuses. It offers young and aware Indians a platform to express their thoughts and aspirations: in voice, prose, verse, painting or music. It brings the top-of-the-mind concerns of millennials to the fore, stimulating substantial conversations. As a forum for open expression and healthy questioning of established ideas and notions, ‘Democracy Wallʼ aims to help the next generation of Indians emerge as involved citizens. Basically, these walls carry the heavyweights of the founding principles of our Indian Democracy. But sadly, during the times of DUSU elections, a large part of these walls are smash-covered with stickers, posters of various money-fondling youth fronts of various money-fondling National and State parties. These walls, at the time of DUSU elections, are used for free publicity. Even after spending so much money on propaganda, stats observed that in the 2017 DUSU elections, which were special on the account that None Of The Above (NOTA) option was allowed for the first time, the 17,000 votes registered as NOTA were larger than the votes registered for each of the four winning candidates. This can be viewed as a ray of hope, a hope of maturity among the voters which, we hope, would bring some sensibility in parties contesting elections, a constraint on the pompous show, a ray of hope towards the maturing Democracy of India.