Fresh from his victory in the recently-concluded National Students Union of India (NSUI) elections, its president Gobind Khatra, s not deterred by ghosts from the past. “I have no criminal history. Just one case of stabbing has ben filed against me and it is politically motivated. The trial is pending in a sessions court. The FIR says I stabbed the person whereas I was not even present at the scene of the crime,” Khatra said in his first interaction with mediapersons today.

And the agenda for the new NSUI chief is removing goonda culture from college politics. “I am from a non-political background and contested Panjab University elections and now have moved to a larger platform, NSUI. Our main aim now is to bridge the rural-urban divide. Our intra-party polls have touched 800 colleges in Punjab now and we intend to tie up with NGOs to create awareness against important student issues — mushrooming of colleges by unscrupulous elements with poor infrastructure for students,” he said. “We are making list of such colleges — both government and private — and will take up the matter with the government. Though our core ideology is Congress, we intend to take up issues concerning students,” he said.