New Delhi, Nov. 27: Two weeks after the Prime Minister was shown black flags at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for his Iran policy, the student executive council has censured students’ union president Mona Das.

Das belongs to the radical All India Students’ Association (AISA) ? backed by the CPI(ML) ? whose activists had waved the flags and shouted “Manmohan Singh go back” during the Prime Minister’s speech.

The censure has underlined the disunity among Left groups in the union, dominated by the AISA, the CPM-backed Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the CPI-supported All India Students Federation.

Das was censured on three counts: One, she hadn’t informed the students’ union about Manmohan Singh’s November 14 visit though she knew about it since September; two, she wasn’t present on the day of the visit; and three, her party had flouted a student executive council decision not to disrupt the function.

At a general body meeting of the council, convened around 4 pm on Saturday, the debate and voting on whether Das should be impeached or censured lasted 12 hours.

Altogether 458 voted in favour of the SFI-sponsored censure motion while 277 voted against it. The Congress-backed National Students Union of India had moved an impeachment motion, which was defeated 285-431. The BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad voted for censure but against impeachment.

Das blamed a “Right wing” campaign for the censure. “It’s a resounding victory for AISA,” she said.

The council had decided to confine its protest against Singh’s policies to a march on the campus the day before his visit.