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On 6 September 2024, SFI Delhi organised a Pride Parade at the Arts Faculty, in collaboration with Queer Collectives from across Delhi. The rally condemned the discrimination and injustice faced by women and the Queer Community across educational institutions in India.

 

On 6 September 2024, SFI Delhi called for a Pride Parade—commencing from the Arts Faculty. The march denounced discrimination, demanding Queer Liberation, inclusive campuses, and equality for all. Sheets were handed out to the hundreds of students in attendance, with SFI putting out their demands in their ongoing efforts for a safer, more equitable campus. Among the demands were horizontal reservation for transgender students, establishing gender-neutral bathrooms, and a Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GCASH) for affected students to put in their grievances and receive assistance. 

 

When asked about what pride means to them, Ojaswi, a second-year student of mathematics from Deshbandhu College, remarked,

Pride means being at peace with existing in this world,” while for Nandini Das, a student from Miranda House, it meant “finding a community that is inclusive and accepting.” 

 

One female police officer stationed to manage the march, when asked about the march taking place alongside the DUSU elections, shared,

We are on duty here from 9 in the morning to ensure no issue happens and there are other staff taking care of the DUSU rallies.”

 

Some of the slogans and sentiments that remained constant throughout the demonstration were:        

Inquilab Zindabad; 

Teri Mukti Meri Mukti Queer Mukti;

This queerphobic government isn’t going to last another term.”  

These sentiments and statements echoed throughout the march, with discontent with the government and its policies being quite apparent. 

 

While discussing how being queer shaped the experience of being at Delhi University, Ojaswi shared,

As a visibly queer and trans student, navigating spaces in the college can be scary because it would take only a second for me to get discriminated against.”

 

They elaborated on how the queer collective at Deshbandhu College is very recent, which added to the difficulty and finding spaces within the university. They said, “I had to figure out how to navigate college while also having to be good in social situations.”

 

When the conversation turned to the internet and how social media affects the attitudes towards queer acceptance and organising the queer movement, a student from IPCW remarked,

While social media has made people aware and given us a freedom of expression, the same freedom of expression has enabled people to spread hate and bully others online.” 

 

A while ago there was a huge wave of acceptance and support for the message of ‘love is love’, but now homophobia and misogyny have returned on these platforms, making them inaccessible.” – Nandini Das

 

The message ultimately was that everyone deserves to be freed from all forms of pain, no matter who they are or where they come from. “We’ll snatch back our freedom ourselves” was one of the strongest slogans that was echoed, reflecting how frustrated and disillusioned people have gotten towards the incumbent. Wanting to liberate themselves then signified a sense of urgency to take matters into their own hands for changes.

 

When asked about their views of the future of the queer movement in the country, particularly in the context of students, Gouri, a first-year student from Lady Shri Ram College, described herself as “consciously hopeful” despite the “negative trend of dismissive and insulting attitudes of the youth towards queer acceptance.” Ojaswi, too, described themselves as “hopeful but cautious as the political situation in the country is not very favourable for queer people.” 

 

The ironic juxtaposition of the hundreds of ABVP banners under which the march was taking place was brought up to which Haya, another first year student from LSR, observed,

While it is ironic, it is also empowering to be under these flags and still be out and proud, wearing all these clothes and expressing ourselves in this way while standing under ABVP flags.”

 

 

Read Also: The Politics and Party of Pride

 

Disha Bharti

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Yash

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Recent heavy rainfall in the capital on June 28 has exposed severe infrastructural issues, particularly at the Arts Faculty, where the reading room experienced significant water leakages and short circuits. Additionally, other esteemed educational institutes like IIT Delhi and AIIMS Delhi are also witnessing an equally miserable fate.

As Delhi University continues its yearly ritual of exorbitant fee hikes—110% in PhD courses and 40% in annual postgraduate courses—it is important to note that the condition in which DU students have to study remains deplorable. These problems clearly reflect the university’s incompetence and disregard for student safety.

The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) DU’s Instagram page, @sfiduspeaks, posted a reel highlighting the miserable state of one of India’s premier institutions. Captioned “Save Public Education! Save Delhi University! Fee Must Fall!”, the post called for immediate action from the university to address these infrastructural issues. SFI Vijay Nagar has also demanded urgent measures to fix these problems and ensure student safety, noting that the lack of basic amenities like air conditioning in classrooms becomes unbearable when temperatures in Delhi soar to 48 degrees Celsius. The third building, made with makeshift materials like tin roofs and asbestos-lined walls, exacerbates the heat issue, creating an uninhabitable learning environment.

Simran, from SFI DU, in a conversation with DU Beat, said, “Since there is no maintenance in these reading rooms at Arts Faculty, due to heavy rain, the ceiling started to leak and then a short circuit happened, and soon fire also occurred out of nowhere. The main problem is that despite increasing fees they are not improving infrastructure and maintenance at all.”

Additionally, a press release by SFI Delhi University, dated June 27, 2024, highlighted student protests against the fee hikes in postgraduate courses. Students criticized the apathetic Delhi University administration and the ABVP-led Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) for their silence on the rising education costs. It showcased how fee hikes place a heavy financial burden on students, undermining the principles of publicly funded education and limiting opportunities. Despite the fee hikes in previous academic years, there has been no corresponding improvement in infrastructure. Students of the well-known Law Faculty often find their campus without even a single functioning water cooler, all while bearing Delhi’s scorching heat.

In addition to Delhi University, other premier institutes in Delhi have also been severely affected by the heavy rainfall. AIIMS Delhi experienced similar issues with severe water leakage on June 28, highlighting the widespread infrastructural problems across top educational institutions in the city.

At IIT Delhi, a viral video showed a pillar collapsing in the placement cell building following the heavy rainfall. This incident led to the disconnection of electricity in some areas for safety reasons. An official email from the Institute Engineer detailed the flooding on campus and stated that maintenance teams are working to restore services. The email requested cooperation from the campus community and apologized for the inconvenience.

These incidents at Delhi University, AIIMS Delhi, and IIT Delhi highlight the urgent need for infrastructural changes and better maintenance protocols, it’s indeed high time that these educational institutes make upgrades to ensure the safety and well-being of their student body, who have come from faraway places in the country to study in “premier institutes” in the capital. Despite significant fee hikes, these institutions have failed to invest adequately in their infrastructure, leading to dangerous and unacceptable learning conditions. As students and stakeholders wonder, “Where is our money going?”, they are now demanding accountability and immediate improvements to their educational environments.

Featured image credits: Devesh for DU Beat

Read Also: TISS Dismisses and Reinstates Staff Following Funding Assurance from TATA Education Trust

Kavya Vashisht

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With an overwhelming abundance of saffron flags and Jai Shree Ram chants across the North Campus of Delhi University, students have their opinions divided over the future of sanctity of educational spaces.

22nd of January, 2024 saw the North Campus of Delhi University wrapped in saffron. Saffron flags, streamers, sashes, ‘tilaks’ adorned every corner of the campus. Imprinted on them were the signs of ABVP, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student-wing of RSS, along with images of Lord Ram and slogans of ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Diyas spelled out as ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and a giant poster of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ marked the entrance to the Arts Faculty of Delhi University. Bhajan Mandali, LED-screens live screening the Ayodhya ceremony, community kitchens as well as a miniature structure of the Ram Mandir was established within the campus to emulate the celebrations at Ayodhya.

The Pran Pratistha Ceremony at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, Ayodhya was a truly historic moment, one that generations have waited for. We have been fortunate to witness it live with our eyes. The students of Delhi University, like the rest of the nation, were beyond themselves with joy on this occasion. The constant slogans of Jai Shree Ram during the screening held at North Campus, the hawans in various colleges, all tell us how emotional the student fraternity was about the event. Lakhs of diyas were lit across the North and South Campus, and the off-campus colleges, and the turnout for the same was completely spontaneous, especially that for more than 2.5 lakh diyas being lit at the North Campus, Chhatra Marg and the law faculty with students turning up in large numbers for them.

-Ashish Singh, State Executive Member of ABVP.

While the celebrations continued, the student community within Delhi University is divided on the connotations behind this saffron wave. Contrarily, the Faculty of Law saw the Tiranga wave on 23rd January.

“The students of the Faculty of Law conducted an event emphasising the ideas in our Preamble as well as the Indian Constitution. The event was in contrast to the politicisation of the Ram Mandir celebration by ABVP with communal slogans of ‘Kaashi Mathura Abhi Baaki Hai’ and writing ‘Hindu Rashtra’ with diyas. Like our nation, our campus is also a diverse space with students from different backgrounds enriching it and the Law Faculty event highlighted that the flag of no other ‘sangathan’ is above our Tiranga at the end of the day.”

-Hitesh Kumar, state executive member of SFI.

The three-day event conducted at the Faculty of Law since the 23rd of January saw preamble readings, marches, speeches by advocates emphasising the ideals engrained within the Preamble of the Constitution.

However, as ABVP flags overwhelmed both the campuses of Delhi University on the 22nd of January, the absence of alternate student parties’ inclusion in the celebration was alarming. Like the nation, the lack of opposition at a national event like the Ayodhya celebration led to a political showdown of saffron and ‘Jai Shree Ram’. In response to claims why the Faculty of Law event was not conducted on 22nd itself, a member of SFI says that:

We did not want to interrupt the ABVP event as the sentiments of general students would have been hurt. Anything beyond the Pran Pratistha event would have been marked as an act against a particular religion, which we are not. The Faculty of Law event was not a reactionary one. It’s the need of the time that we should remember and embrace the secular, democratic, socialist ideas enshrined in our constitution.

“We have all witnessed the saffronisation of buildings, universities and streets just before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and we have taken up a nationwide campaign, ‘Modi Sarkar Ke Dus Saal’ to gauge the real issues concerning the nation like unemployment and we conducted preamble readings across DU campuses at a prime time when the constitution of India is under blatant attack and the campus is being communalized.”

-Anjali, AISA DU Secretary.

While several perspectives crop up with respect to the University embracing ‘religious symbols’ on the 22nd of January, several questions remain to be answered by the student fraternity. Should university grounds be open to embracing religious connotations? Has religion become a politicised tool in the campus and the country today? Where do we draw the line between religion and culture today?

Public-funded educational spaces must not have such blatant display of religious ceremonies. If you take a walk around Arts Faculty, Ram Mandir and bhagwa flags take over the Indian flag and this can occur only if the administration is involved along with DUSU, which is dominated by ABVP. We have requested the Dean of Arts Faculty to take down the saffron flags at our campus to let our campus be a secular space.

-Aditi, SFI DU Convenor.

With the introduction of the National Educational Policy, subtle saffronisation of public education had taken it’s roots with Hindu Studies being introduced as a major, removal of Islamic thinkers from undergraduate syllabus as well as introducing subjects like Fit India, Horoscope Reading as skill-enhancement courses. However, the Pran Pratistha Ceremony of 22nd of January, let loose the gradually boiling saffronisation and unveiled it in the open.

Cultural ceremonies pertaining to the feats of Lord Ram, Bhajan Mandalis concerning Lord Ram and slogans of ‘Ram Mandir se Ram Rajya Tak’ were heard across North Campus with hundreds of devotees gathered round. While streaks of saffron crawled through our education space previously, 22nd of January marked a saffron-tsunami for DU. And the most alarming part lay in the lack of alternative voices within the campus. This brings along another important question, is our campus still a safe-space to provide alternate views? Or will only the way of the saffron community exist from now on?

While the Hindutva debate rages on, right-wing parties often claim the salience of being a Hindu as a geographical identity, much beyond the boundaries of religion and culture. Hindutva is seen as a force of unity, a reason of national pride.

Opposing the claims of ‘communalism’ propagated by ‘Hindu Rashtra’ written using Diyas within North Campus, a state-executive member of ABVP notes that:

In our understanding, Hindu Rashtra is not a symbol of communalism, it is a geographical concept. Even if this particular word was written, there is nothing wrong in it. It is the origin of various names our country is known by like India and Hindustan.

Another perspective that must be noted in the Ram Mandir celebration was the mass number of students who turned up. Colleges across DU noticed tides of students turning up to embrace the celebration, in various ethnic attires and saffron sashes, which depicts where the sentiments of the student fraternity are mostly inclined today.

While debates rage on if the Ayodhya celebration was used as a mass-politicised tool, the association of Ram Janmabhoomi with saffron-right wing flags rather than national flags paints an all together different picture. Ram Mandir celebrations have been localized only for right-believers, as the ABVP symbol conjugated with ‘Jai Shree Ram’ flags suggests. To what extent must religion go hand in hand with politics? To what extent must religion be allowed to enter secular educational spaces?

While controversies and discussions run around in this heated political climate, we need to gauge some important answers, is the Ram Mandir celebration a symbol of United India or of Hindutva Dominance? While the national as well as campus community remains divided upon the answer, Naya Bharat aka Naya DU is rapidly reshaping itself as per majority sentiments!

Read Also: Saffronisation of Cultural Expression

Featured Image Credits: Ankita Baidya For DU Beat

Priyanka Mukherjee

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On Monday, April 10, the teachers and various teacher organisations of Delhi University staged a protest during an Executive Council meeting, demanding the absorption of ad-hoc and temporary teachers along with the formation of governing bodies in Delhi government-funded DU colleges.

The members of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) protested outside the vice chancellor’s office while the Executive Council meeting was underway. They were joined by the teachers’ wing of the Aam Adami Party, the Academics for Action and Development Delhi Teachers’ Association (AADTA). The demonstration included two members of the Executive Council itself, Seema Das and Rajpal Singh Pawar, who are also associated with AADTA. The primary issue raised was that of the displacement of ad-hoc teachers, leading to dire financial conditions and job insecurity.

 “The ousting of long-serving teachers is inhumane and promotes social insecurity in the working of the ad-hoc teaching community, which is not in the interest of the academic environment, teachers, and the community.”

                                            —AK Bhagi, Delhi University Teachers’ Association President

They demanded the absorption of displaced teachers and additionally called for the formation of governing bodies in colleges funded by the Delhi government, claiming that the “arbitrary displacements” had been a result of the absence of governing bodies.

“DU has been reneging on its promise of no displacement and warned that this is leading to the harassment of thousands of ad-hoc and temporary teachers working in the colleges of the University.”

                         —Seema Das, Executive Council Member and Member of AADTA

Displacement of ad-hoc teachers has been a pressing issue in the varsity, as data gathered by some University teachers suggests that nearly 76% of ad-hoc teachers have been displaced. Of the 615 ad-hoc teachers who were interviewed for permanent positions in various colleges, it is estimated that nearly 465 have been displaced as of April 8. Many of them have been teaching for several years, some even decades and nearing retirement.

“You cannot displace them in just two minutes. What will happen to them? Where will they go? Many of these teachers are above 40 and some are even nearing retirement. They provided their services despite knowing that they were not going to receive any facilities that the permanent staff do. We have been abandoned by the University and left in a lurch.”

                   — An anonymous ad-hoc teacher who was displaced recently

Some teachers alleged lack of transparency in the interview process, saying that they were not selected despite having experience and academic publications.

Featured Image Credits: DU Beat Archives

Read also: Chronological Account of the DUTA Ad-Hoc Crisis

Sanika Singh
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DU students organised a protest at Arts Faculty, North Campus to attract Delhi University authorities’ attention towards their demand for online examinations for all semesters of DU.


Following an earlier protest which was organised on 7th March 2022, students of Delhi University held another protest on 11th March 2022, demanding online examinations (or OBE) for all students, including those belonging to semesters other than the first semester. This protest was held at Arts Faculty, North Campus, Delhi University and students showed up in massive numbers to support this demand for OBE for the ongoing semesters.

 

These offline protests were accompanied by online protests which involved sharing of posters on stories and using the hashtag ‘#Hybridmodeshouldbeachoice’ and ‘#OnlineExamForAllSemestersOfDU’. This also led to the signing and filling of an online petition form which was then to be submitted to the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University on 11th March itself.

 

After the massive re-opening protests in the beginning of February, these protests highlighting the problems of re-opening and offline classes have brought forward the irony and duality of being a Delhi University student. 

 

The student protesters believe that OBE mode of examination is the only form in which examination should be taken in such a scenario wherein almost 70-80% of the syllabus has been covered during online classes. 

For 2 years we have been giving online exams and online assignments and now suddenly the colleges have opened and (offline) internals have started… It will take time to adapt ourselves to the university environment; and we haven’t gotten that much time. Majority of our syllabus has been completed online. Only the latter 30% is being taught in offline (mode) and then you are expecting that we give offline exams so obviously that is a problem for us,” says Anubhav, a 3rd year UG student from Ramjas.

 

Many students have also raised concern over the fact that while all the colleges have opened, hostels have not. This means that in addition to all the other problems and issues that the students are facing, they also have to find a place to stay at a very short notice. This comes with an extreme rise in PG prices and rents, something that cannot be ignored when talking about students coming from different economic backgrounds.

I saw yesterday that the mother of a student was crying that please get my daughter a hostel, a room. They haven’t thought about where the students are going to stay. All they have said is that come and give offline exams,” continues Anubhav.

 

Many of the post-graduate students have also highlighted the problem of having to leave the jobs that they had taken up or the examinations they were preparing for.

We have already started pursuing our different (professional) lines and we have started the studies for the same. Now you are expecting that we switch over, so obviously it isn’t that easy. It isn’t easy to do so in a Master’s (degree),” said a student from Hansraj College.

 

Following these protests from Friday, a group of student protestors was called in front of the examination decision-making authority, that is, the Dean of Examinations, to discuss the issue and address the students’ demands. This was done without the presence of the Vice-Chancellor due to his absence during that time.

First of all, they said that majority of the students want to give offline exams. On that, we showed them the 7000 forms (petition forms) that had been filled after which they said that they would mediate upon this and get back to us,” said Divyanshu Singh Yadav, who has been very vocal and visible at the protests and has been constantly urging students to support the cause through the medium of videos on an Instagram page dedicated to this cause, ‘du_online_mode_2022’.

At present, no clear decision has been taken in response to these students’ protests yet.

 

Read also ‘CYSS Vivekananda College Demands ‘No Classes’ on Saturdays’ 

Feature Image Credits: YouTube (@Gaurav Doraha)

 

Manasvi Kadian

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Despite intermittent rain and drizzle, student fraternity stood rock solid to give momentum to mass awareness programme regarding the much talked about dubitable act.

On Thursday, 16 January 2020, resistance against the contentious laws of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and National Population Register (NPR) was conducted by ‘Gandhi Calling Organization’ in association with Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU), and National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), at Arts Faculty, North Campus, University of Delhi (DU).

The mass movement witnessed some key figures such as social activist Medha Patkar, Tushar Gandhi, lawyer Karuna Nundy, Justice Kolse Patil, and Journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani among others. The president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), Aishi Ghosh was also expected but she didn’t make it to the programme. 

A nukkad natak by the hausala group of school going students kick-started the event with the central message of ‘echoing the dissent in a democracy.’

Amidst the intermittent rains, the awareness programme got delayed by an hour and faced some difficulties in operation but the perseverance with which the protestors and the speakers stood, made the event a successful one.

‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ anchor, Medha Patkar spoke firmly about her differences from the Act and hinted towards having a source (whose identity shall remain undisclosed), about the fact that internal debates are happening inside the ruling party about NRC and there might be a silver lining to it.

Lawyer Karuna Nundy, who once worked with the victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy, broke down the legal aspect of the Act and while talking about the loopholes, said, “the males, urban,  and savarnas will have a much greater chance of having documents contrary to the females, village dwellers, bahujan, aadivasi, etc.” She also talked about the correlation with what she said,” ‘Hindutva supremacist philosophy’ and ‘toxic masculinity and patriarchy.’ ” She concluded by reciting the preamble of the Constitution of India.

Tushar Gandhi outrightly called out the government for distortion of history and manipulation. He said, “we will never be enslaved again and must have our heads held high.”

Justice Kolse Patil stood in the drizzle whilst appreciating the youth mobilisation and talked about the importance of education and student movements.

Journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani majorly emphasised about the role of women in the protests and saluted the ones in Shaheen Bagh who took to the streets for their rights. She also addressed the ethics of media and how it’s the “voice of the voiceless.” 

Speaker sessions were complemented by songs, from ‘dastak‘, slogans, rhymes, etc in between to keep the crowd engaged despite the drizzle and rain.

The programme was wrapped up by chants and slogans of Azadi, Inquilab, etc. Although the event was to be followed with a protest march at the end but it was cancelled as the rain caused a delay. Hence, affecting the time-bound permission sought prior to the event from the officials. Upon denied any relaxation in time, protesters raised both of their hands up as a gesture, in the air and chanted freedom slogans once again and thus concluded a successfully held peaceful protest.

The students who joined in on the protest talked to DU Beat and said that they felt ‘relatively safer’ in protesting inside the campus and are motivated by Bismil and Ashfaq to speak up and fight for what they believe is wrong. Some of them deemed the act as ‘unconstitutional’ and would continue to fight it till it’s not taken back.

 

Featured Image Credits: Umaima Khanam for DU Beat

Umaima Khanam 

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Amidst sloganeering and illustrating placards, Left Wing collectives from Delhi University (DU) including All India Students’ Association (AISA), PACHHAS, Pinjra Tod, and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) organised a protest, and a memorial for Kashmir Lockdown and SAR Geelani respectively at art faculty today.

“Kunan Pashpora yaad karo, AFSPA nahi chalega (Remember Kunan Pashpora, Bring Down AFSPA)” and similar slogans ran throughout the protest organised to commemorate the memories of S.A.R. Geelani, an Arabic language professor from Zakir Hussain College who passed away on 24th October following a cardiac arrest. Geelani was a controversial figure; a native of Kashmir he was first convicted but subsequently acquitted in 2001 Parliament attack case.

On Tuesday, various student organisations from DU including the likes of AISA, PACHAS, Pinjra Tod, and SFI organised a protest at Arts Faculty to celebrate him. Simultaneously, protesters also brought back the diabolical memories of Kashmir Lockdown which completed 100 days on 13th November.

On merging two separate incidents into one protest Nandita Narain, the former President of Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), told DU Beat that because Professor Geelani was also a Kashmiri who felt deeply for the valley it would be befitting to combine both the events. On asking if yesterday’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) protest has defoliated the amount of attention this should have gotten, Professor Narain said, “ All these things are related. The policy that the government is following are connected with each other. JNU students must be extremely traumatised and busy with their own protest otherwise whenever we call for a protest, they always come in large numbers.”

Remembering his late friend, Professor Rakesh Ranjan told in his speech how much Professor Geelani felt for political prisoners who get framed wrongly. About Kashmir, Ranjan said that Geelani always believed that Kashmiris will decide for Kashmir themselves. He added, “If we want to defeat fascism, we’ll have to strengthen democratic right movement in this country.” His speech ended with crowd cheering the slogan, “Long Live  Right to Self Determination”

Talking to DU Beat, Abhigyan, former Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) Presidential candidate,  lashed out at Government’s repulsive behaviour towards Kashmir as the valley enters 107th day of lockdown. He said, “The way Kashmir was made a UT by abrogating 370 following which the way in which opposition voices were crushed there, it’s evident that this is not just a mean to curb dissent but also democracy wholly.”

Amidst the protest, a reporter from Zee News got heckled while she tried to talk to the protesters. The enraged protesters turned hostile towards her claiming that the channel reported lies against Professor Geelani, and did biased covering on the abrogation of Article 370.

Feature Image Credits: AISA Delhi University (Facebook)

Priyanshu

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ABVP protests against fraud and nepotism in the admission process of a Ph.D./M.Phil. student and violation of UGC regulations by the Department of Political Science of the University of Delhi (DU).

Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) volunteers gathered at the Faculty of Arts and marched to the Department of Political Science on 18th October, 2019, for the second day of their protest against the administration of Political Science Department for the ongoing corruption, nepotism and violation of University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines in the admission process.

The Department of Political Science has allegedly conducted its Ph.D./ M.Phil. admissions without adherence to UGC regulations and University of Delhi statutes, resulting in favouritism and negligence of merit. ABVP has been protesting since the 17th October, 2019 against the fraud in the admission process in the Ph.D. of this Department, violation of rules and regulations of University Grant Commission, and favouritism in the admission process. According to the Press Release issued by ABVP, a group of Professors, who are ideologically intolerant of liberal ideas, they are denying admission to the meritorious students.

This protest has come after discrepancies in the 2019 admissions. Apparently, on 7th October, the list of the selected candidates was published. However, after two hours, it was removed and a new list was published. The only difference, it no longer had the name of a girl belonging to the Scheduled Castes category. The administration of the Department has not given the reasons for the removal of the name yet. Moreover, only 13 seats out of the 18 available seats were opened for admission.

Ashutosh Singh, State Media In-charge for ABVP, said to DU Beat, “We came to know through the students that the professors tend to give preference to their favourite students in the viva for the entrance exam, neglecting the ones who are also deserving. Last year it came to our notice that even the top ranking students of the entrance exam were not able to get admission after the viva. How is it possible for the top rankers to completely fail in viva?”

ABVP has asked the administration of Political Science Department seven questions regarding the inconsistencies in the admission process and has given the administration an ultimatum to answer their queries by Monday. ABVP claims to also have written letters to the Dean of Political Science Department, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi and Vice President of India for this purpose. Apart from this, the ABVP volunteers have also placed the following demands:

  1. Make admission process to M.Phil./Ph.D. fair and transparent.
  2. The admission process must be centralized and time-bound.
  3. Admission must be conducted in adherence to UGC regulations and the University of Delhi statutes.
  4. All the seats offered by DU prospectus for Ph.D. intake should be fulfilled at the earliest by all the Departments.
  5. The number of seats for the research must be increased.
  6. Social Justice must be implemented in all its constitutional and legal dimensions.
  7. The UGC prescribed 70:30 ratio of written exam to viva-voce must be implemented with all its transparency.
  8. The examination process must be student-friendly and the bureaucratic red-tapism must be curbed.
  9. Steps must be taken to curtail the influence of Teachers’ politics on the admission process.
  10. Address the grievances of those students who have been denied admission on fraudulent grounds.

Siddharth Yadav, State Secretary, ABVP Delhi, said in the Press Release, “Administration of Political Science Department should not think that yesterday we were here only for a symbolic protest, we will continue our protest till the student interests are not secured. Our protest will turn into a revolution if the administration will not listen to our demands.”

 

Featured Image Credits: University of Delhi 

Satviki Sanjay

[email protected]

In solidarity with the Department of Hindi, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) organised a march against the caste discrimination within the department, joined by other student organistaions like All India Students’ Association (AISA), and Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS).

The post of the Head of Department (HoD) in the Department of Hindi at Delhi University (DU) has been lying vacant for the past three weeks after the end of the tenure of the last HOD on 12th September. Two veteran members of the department, Professors Sheoraj Singh Bechain and K N Tripathi, have both staked claim to the post. Essentially, there are two ways in which someone can become a Professor — either by direct recruitment to the post, or by promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS).

In the case of the Department of Hindi, Mr. Singh was a direct recruit whereas Mr. Tripathi comes under the CAS bracket, which has led to a contest.

As stated in a Press Release by SFI, despite the completion of all official formalities, and submission of a memorandum and a letter to the Vice Chancellor, as a reminder for the urgency of a new head, there has been no progress for an appointment. The Vice Chancellor had already completed all formalities with the last HoD with respect to appointing the next Head, and yet there is an unexplained delay. There has been no communication initiated with the department, and no official announcement has been made with respect to the appointment.

Professor Sheoraj Singh Bechain, the senior-most faculty has been appointed to be the head. He is also one of the very few Dalit professors in DU.  He has actively contributed to Dalit Literature, and is a renowned personality in the anti-caste writing sphere. It is to be noted that there has been no Dalit member to have been appointed as a HoD in DU.

SFI members along with College professors marched from the Faculty of Arts to the Vice Chancellor’s office demanding the appointment of Professor Bechain with respect to the seniority clause. Hansraj Suman from Academic Forum for Social Justice, told The Times of India, “We demand the department release the seniority list and based on that, professor Singh should be given the charge of HoD without delay.” The student wing SFI condemned the Vice Chancellor’s lethargy being due to the Professor’s low caste.

There has been no response with respect to the March from the Vice Chancellor’s office.

Feature Image Credits: Noihrit Gogoi for DU Beat

Stephen Matthew

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On Tuesday, 10th September, the Pune Police searched the residence of Hany Babu, an Associate Professor in the Department of English of the University of Delhi (DU), in relation to the Elgar Parishad Koregaon Bhima case.

On 11th September, students from the Department of English organised a protest near Faculty of Arts, to express their anger and condemn the “illegal raid” at the residence of an Associate Professor from their department, Professor Hany Babu. Professor Babu has been a professor in the varsity for over a decade and has come under the scrutiny of the Pune Police due to his alleged links with the Maoist ideology that incited violence in Koregaon Bhima villages of Maharashtra in 2017.

In his public statement, Professor Babu said, “The search went on for six hours, at the end of which they said they (the Pune Police officials) would be seizing my laptop, my hard disks, my pen drives, and books. They made me change the passwords of my social media accounts and my e-mail account. They have complete access to my accounts now through the changed passwords and I no longer have access to these accounts. I would like to state that as a teacher, my work is heavily dependent on what I’ve saved in my laptops and external hard disks. It also contains the research work that I’ve been pursuing for years. This work is not something which can be duplicated in days. These are years of my hard work. I don’t understand how a government agency can seize my work without providing me the reasons for it, or the basis on which a search was conducted at my residence. They did not have a search warrant with them and they did not explain further as to why they don’t possess the same.”

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) condemned the act. In two separate statements, signatories including staff members and teachers of the varsity have criticised the Pune police and wrote, “The fact that legally obtained and publicly available documents may be imagined by the state as containing traces of one’s culpability is worse than declared attempts at censorship. It effectively means that any text may now become a pretext for the state to snoop into and invade our homes, our bookshelves, our lives and our families. Is the act of reading itself proscribed in what is numerically the world’s largest democracy?” Further, Professor Babu’s students also released a statement aptly titled “Professor, He is Our Professor” which reads, “While we feel that the law must take its own course, we also make it clear that these surprise searches without warrants are illegal and amount to extreme harassment. It is incumbent upon legal institutions to oppose such arbitrary raids and prevent/oppose the misuse of inherently dangerous laws such as the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act).” Importantly, the statement also noted, “Hany Babu’s demand for language equality is allied to his demand for breaking caste exclusions in how knowledge is organised,” as Babu is also a part of the Alliance for Social Justice, a forum for opposing caste discrimination in the University.

The subjugation of voices, the strong opposition of ideas, and vulnerability of those who are knowledgeable becomes a trend in the times when a country’s strong voices are subdued to pave way for the façade of calmness and democracy. A professor explicitly claimed in one of their classes that with this advancement, most of the academicians who, over the years, have developed the intellect and voice to speak out, are afraid. Professor Babu’s case hits home in every regard. As respectable figures in the Department, both he and his wife, Mrs. Jenny Rowena, amass strong support, but most of it is under the protective layer of secrecy and confidentiality. For, even the ones with knowledge want to stay safe from the starkness of this dangerous world of misinterpretation and hypocrisy.

Feature Image Credits: Sabrang India

Bhavya Pandey

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