The elected students’ body of Delhi University, the Delhi University Student’s Union (DUSU) organized a protest march on Thursday, the 12^th of November and called for a University Bandh on Friday, the 13^th of November to protest against the unexpected hike in the examination fee, bus fare hike, metro fare hike and shutting down of the DUSU office in North Campus.

The student body, already two months into office, is yet to come out with a concrete agenda as to how they will fulfill their election promises. However, they have evidently already taken a stand on issues like the hike in examination fees and the metro and bus fare hike. As reported earlier, DUSU also protested against the DUSU office, on Chattra Marg in North Campus, being put under lock and key. The protest march therefore started from the DUSU office and moved on to Kranti Chowk, from where it progressed to Patel Chest Chowk, and finally, after passing through Mall road near Khalsa College went back to the DUSU office.

Manoj Chaudhary, the President of DUSU, in context of the examination fee hike said, “The University authorities should have discussed the matter of the fee hike with the students’ union before an implementing the revised fee structure. We need to protest against this commercialization of the university, as education is an investment in the national interest. We are students’ representatives, and we need to discuss the matters like these as they directly affect welfare of students of the University. The University has no right to undermine the Students’ Union.”

The DUSU also believes the hike in the fare of the public transport system of buses and the metro is uncalled for and hence staged the protest walk and called for a bandh. Incidentally the ABVP dominated DUSU panel called bandh coincided with the bandh called by the BJP against the hike in bus fares. As a result ABVP party workers also led a protest march from Deshbandhu College and ended in Nehru Place. During the course of this march, the party workers stopped buses, shouted slogans and burnt effigies of the Chief Minister. This disruption of the public transport system caused much annoyance to the various students travelling to and from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, as their fest, “Tarang” was underway. Says a student of the college on the condition of anonymity, “The DUSU claims that they work for the welfare of the students. I fail to understand how it’s achieving this by being a hindrance to something as essential as public transport. Instead of helping us, they are actually making things more difficult for us by creating such a ruckus.”

The 7^th Premchand Memorial International Debate was organized by the Hindu College Debating Society from the 3^rd to the 6^th of November. The debate consisted of five preliminary rounds, followed by the quarter finals, the semi finals and the final rounds. The themes of the motions debated covered various issues from gender, international relations to debating itself. Prizes worth Rs 85,000 were up for grabs. The lucky winners were as follows:

Best Team- Maanav Kumar and Abhimanyu George, National Law School, Bangalore

Second Best Team- Ananya Kotia and Radhika Saini, Hansraj College

Best Speaker- Vipul Nanda, National Law School, Bangalore

Best Adjudicator- Eeshan Ghosh, National Law School Bangalore

To celebrate the spirit of theatre , Lakshya , the dramatics society of Kamla Nehru college, organised its first ever theatre Festival , Concoction . Held from the 3^rd to the fifth of November, it included a range of events like talks and  discussions by eminent theatre personalities as well  as various street  and stage play competitions . A quick look at the winners of these competitions

Street Play:

1. KMC

2. CBS

3. LSR

Stage Play:

Special Mention: “Nirdeshek ki khoj mein”

Best Actors: Rajiv Naresh

Anuja Vaidya

(Both St Stephens) “The Problem”

Best Director: Akash Bhatia (Venky) – for “Melange”

Best Production: “Nine Parts of Desire”

Sri Venkateswara College, in collaboration with the Department of English, Delhi University; recently organized a three day national conference on Conflict, Belonging and ‘Multiculturalism’ in the Literature and Allied Arts from the 5^th to the 7^th of November. The three day event included a variety of sessions with the aid of a range of media like literature, cinema, theatre and story telling. The aim of the conference was to assess the overall context of the theme with respect to the migration and movement of people within the country and outside, and facilitate the exchange of ideas between people from different fields and interests resulting in a new approach and perspective on the related issue. While the keynote address was given by Shri Ashok Vajpayee, Chairperson of the Lalit Kala Akademi; the seminar saw participation by a number of renowned speakers, professors, writer, journalists and film makers from various states. The distinctiveness of the conference lay in the variety of the subjects of discussion which the theme included, including multiculturalism with context to books like The Inscrutable Americans, Harry Potter and The Crocodile Lady; and movies including Dor, The Blue Umbrella, Khamosh Paani et al. The role and impact of community, violence and politics on the theme were also analysed further in some sessions. Apart from this, a movie screening of Director Amar Kanwar’s unsettling yet eye opening story on sexual violence, ‘Lighting Testimonies’ was also done, later followed by a talk with the director himself. The three day event was successfully concluded by a vote of thanks and much appreciation by the speakers and addressees alike.