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Prashant Bhushan’s assaulter to go on hunger strike against AAP’s Reservation

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Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, founder of Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (BSKS), along with his group is up in arms to oppose the Aam Aadmi Party’s move to reserve seats for students of Delhi in the University of Delhi.

Under the tagline “Khoon se khelenge holi gar watan mushkil mein hai, sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab humare dil mein hai“, BSKS shot to fame after assaulting one of the founding members of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Prashant Bhushan in his Supreme Court chamber in October 2011. In the past, the group has also protested against Kapil Sibal, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Arundhati Roy.

However, the group is taking a rather softer approach this time against the reservation move, by sending a petition to the Chief Minister of Delhi and going on a hunger strike. The group has also resorted to hunger strikes in the past, a previous one in the support of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Taking on AAP’s proposal towards reservation for Delhi domicile students in DU, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has started a petition on change.org which will be sent to the C.M. of Delhi. In its petition, Tajinder Pal Singh terms the move to reserve seats in DU as ‘completely partisan, myopic and self-serving decision for petty vote bank politics’. According to him, the move could have severe ramifications for India’s identity of pluralism. Citing examples of electricity and water, that are supplied to Delhi from other states, he reasons that DU should be open to students from all over the country. He plans to go on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar from 27th of January.

He says that the solution to the dearth of seats could be setting up of new colleges and granting university status to some colleges, as has been the case with the Presidency College of Calcutta University. “It is a dream of many students to study in DU. A better solution to the problem of lack of seats for the regional students could be creation of new colleges and evening shifts in the existing colleges”, he tells us in a telephonic conversation.

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Economics delegation from Delhi University attends SAESM in Lahore

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A group of twelve students and five professors from the University of Delhi attended the 10th South Asian Economics Students Meet (SAESM) held at Lahore, Pakistan from 23rd to 30th December. This economic meet had an undergraduate students representation from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The entire event was divided into two halves. The conference and various competitions were held on the first three days, followed by a retreat on the next three. Political Economy in South Asia was the overall theme for this meet, conversely, there were six sub-themes. University of Delhi, Lahore University of Management Sciences, University of Kabul, Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and many more attended this event.

The students stayed in the Lahore University campus. The first day commenced with the national anthems of the seven South Asian countries being represented, which was followed by the opening ceremony- finally unraveling the 10th Annual Meet. Charvi Kain, LSR and Sambodhi Sarkar, St. Stephen’s College stood second in the quiz; Palaash Bhargava, KMC stood third in the Budding Economist and Chhavi Miglani from SRCC reached the final round for the Budding Economist.

Apart from leading the Indian delegation, Sambodhi Sarkar also won the Amartya Sen-Mehboob ul Haq Award. His paper on The Political Economy of Public Finance was deemed the best overall paper during the conference. Miranda House’s Amrita Garai won laurels for her paper on The Political Economy of International Trade as well.

Other students who represented the University of Delhi were Ishneet Kaur from KMC, Anuvinda PS from LSR, Manas Pathak and Jatin Bavishi of Ramjas College, Karan Kumar from DCAC, Stuti Oberoi of Miranda House and Ishita Asija representing IP College for Women.

After the hectic meet the students were taken for a day trip to Islamabad and for a short visit to the Harappan Valley. A professor of Lahore University also invited all students for lunch at his farmhouse.

The overall feeling by the students of India was that their image of Pakistan had changed and changed for the better. Charvi Kain said, “I felt as though Lahore was quite similar to New Delhi, the people were very warm and the experience had been quite enriching.” Whereas, Palaash Bharagava mentioned that he got to understand Political Economy way beyond the Indian way of learning. He even said that as Economics has various schools of thought, this event proved to be quite successful in making him understand different perspectives of Economics.

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President of India addresses students of DU along with various institutions

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After conferences with various VCs and Directors of numerous Universities in 2013, the Hon’ able President of India, Sh. Pranab Mukherjee interacted with the youth of nation on 7th January, via a video conference. The agenda of the meet was to extend New Year greetings and to highlight the importance of higher education in shaping the future of individuals and the country. The President delivered his message live across numerous centres of NIT Kurukshetra, IIT Bhubaneswar, NIT Rourkela, IIT Ropar, Punjab University and Delhi University to name a few with technical support from National Informatics Centre.

Over 1500 students, teachers and Principals of various DU colleges had gathered in the Convention Hall of Vice Chancellor’s Lodge, North Campus , as the summon began at 12 noon sharp. The conference began with the Dean of NIT Kurukshetra, welcoming the President, VCs, Directors staff and students to the video conference.

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While the President opened by extending his best wishes for the New Year, he went on and enumerated the importance of education and its direct relation with development of citizens. He also brought to notice that none of the Indian universities featured any longer on the top 200 universities list of the world. Although in ancient times numerous universities like Nalanda, Vikramshila and Takshila had attracted knowledge seekers from across the world. The downfall was due to lack of research facilities and creative thinking in the country. He emphasized on collaborative efforts to increase research potential, internationalise education, and encourage meritorious students by scholarships. He pointed out that improvement in the physical infrastructure needed to be matched with dedicated teachers, passion to excel and apt human capital. According to him, this modern era, if ushered in, would open new avenues of growth and hence the institutes would move high in rankings which will lead to high morale, enhanced skills and upright citizens.

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Addressing the teachers, he advised them to be inspiring, make students appreciate and explore the subject beyond discipline. He shared his definition of a ‘ responsible citizen’ – one with patriotism, compassion, integrity, tolerance and respect for his rights and duties.
“It was a wonderful experience to see what a great visionary like Mr. Mukherjee expected from us. It’s a great way to motivate the youth, for this hasn’t really happened before and is a message to other leaders to come forward too.” said Abhinn Khanna, second year DU student.

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DUTA conducts 12 hour standing dharna outside Arts Faculty

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On Saturday, 4th January, the Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA) staged a twelve hour ‘standing dharna’ from 12 noon to midnight to protest against the inhuman treatment meted out by the university against the security guards. The dharna was held outside the Arts Faculty gate in North Campus.

Nandita Narain, the DUTA president expressed her views, “The main reason behind this dharna is the ongoing inhumane behavior in some or the other way in the University. There are basically three issues that we raised; Physical torture of guards, restoration of Panditji’s dhaba and  termination of South Campus’s Security Officer and his wife who was a library employee simultaneously without any appropriate reason. We, at DUTA, demand that these services should be restored and enquired upon.”

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According to DUTA, no reason has been assigned for the removal of the security officer, but could possibly be linked to the fact that the officer, who had worked for 11 years, had not allowed the exit of a truck carrying illegally felled trees.

Their demands, as per the press release, are restoration of chairs and other facilities so that the guards get basic humane working conditions, reinstatement of the dhaba and return of the fine collected from Panditji, the reinstatement of the security officer and his wife, and also an enquiry into the illegal felling of trees and the officials responsible.

The protest, which involves large numbers of teachers, students and karamcharis, was also joined by the Jana Natya Manch, who staged a street play. The DUTA has also written to the National Human Rights Commission regarding the issue.

By Vani Vivek ([email protected]) and Shaily Sharma ([email protected]).

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Delhi University releases FYUP date sheet for examinations to be held in May 2014

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One day after the start of the new semester, Delhi University has rolled out a ‘tentative’ date sheet for the second semester Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) examinations scheduled for May 2014. This tentative examination schedule was announced by the University on 3rd January, 2014.

The examinations for many courses start on 5th May while the last exam is seen to be scheduled on 22nd of May.

The scenario is seen to be similar to the previous semester, when the date sheet arrived much before results were declared for all years and subjects. While the date sheet for first year students has been released, it is still awaited for second and third year students.

FYUP students can check the date sheet here: Arts Courses | Commerce | Science | Foundation/Applied Courses

 

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Features

[SPECIAL] Timeline: Delhi University in 2013

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Journalism is said to be all about story telling. Well, here is a story – the story of all that happened in Delhi University during the previous year. The administration welcomed the FYUP while the community continued the fight against the same. NSUI’s reign over the DUSU cabinet ended with ABVP bagging three seats out of four. Amidst the slew of politics, certain star studded events also managed to squeeze in. Overall, it was quite a year for DU. To list it all, here is what we did – we collated all these events and arranged them in a timeline.

Ready? Just flick through this quick recap. Want to know more about an event? Click on the title of the story.

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Top Delhi University events of 2013

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2013 has been a turbulent year for Delhi University. While the Vice Chancellor brought about a significant change in the University with the plan of taking a step towards providing holistic education for the students, protests over its implementation followed. Other important changes included merging and scrapping of certain courses and entrance exams and removal of the Revaluation System.

With 2014 a few hours away, we take a look back at some of the biggest events that took place in our University this year.

Introduction of Four Year Undergraduate Program

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Hands down the biggest news of the year, Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh proposed and implemented the FYUP in DU. Along with the introduction of an additional year for all courses across the University, most entrance exams including the CATE and CJET were scrapped off, certain courses like the Programme courses were done away with and some were merged like the Journalism and Mass Communication courses and the three Undergraduate Management courses. The syllabi were redrawn to include Foundation Courses that were to be common across all colleges and courses and exit points for students were also added. All these changes were implemented despite protests from students, parents and teachers.

Second chance for students who failed a year

After a series of drastic changes that raised eyebrows from teachers and students alike, the University finally issued some positive news in July. According to the Notice, students who had failed a year would not have to repeat the entire year and could simply retake the exams of previous subjects along with the new ones instead.

DUSU and DUTA Elections 2013

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The DUSU elections took place in September this year and the newly elected Union comprised 3 ABVP members and one representative from NSUI. Aman Awana was elected as the President. The week before the elections saw aggressive campaigning from all parties with flyers strewn across every inch of North Campus.

In Picture: DUTA President Nandita Narain | Image Credit: Abhinav Arora for DU Beat

The DUTA elections, which were held in August saw a large turnout this year. Dr. Nandita Narain from DTF was elected as the body’s President.

BR Ambedkar College’s Principal suspended over sexual assault allegations

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Bhim Rao Ambedkar College’s Principal, G K Arora was suspended in October after allegations of sexual abuse were made against him. The alleged victim, Pavitra Bhardwaj was a Laboratory Assistant in the college and had filed a case against him four years ago. The suspension was made after a recommendation by the college’s governing body after Bhardwaj immolated herself outside the Chief Minister’s Office.

Removal of Revaluation System

Another notification issued by the University in October declared that revaluation of examination sheets would be discontinued post the Semester Exams held in November-December 2013. The University explained that since the papers would now be jointly examined by multiple professors, there would be no need for revaluation. Though both the DUTA and DUSU cabinet were vocal about their opposition of this move, as is usually the case, their views were ignored by the VC.

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Delhi University students to evaluate teachers from January

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In what appears to be a very comprehensive reform in Delhi University, students are set to evaluate the teachers from the next semester starting in January. The Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh has come out with this measure where every teacher will be evaluated twice or thrice every semester. Confidentiality of the feedback will be maintained in the evaluation system by students according to him.
This evaluation will be decisive factor for the promotion of teachers and would be made part of teacher’s files. Teachers will be judged on factors like quality of teaching, regularity in taking classes and innovation in manner of teaching. The new feedback system is called ‘holistic and formal’ by the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University.

When DUTA was asked on their take at this new system, President Nandita Narain expressed her disillusionment. In a telephonic conversation to DU Beat she said, “It is a very dangerous quid pro quo situation and only the teachers would be blamed. There is no provision about monitoring and authenticity of the students’ feedback for teachers. Teachers were not consulted in this decision and the VC is running the university like a mafia. When the teachers don’t have the right to design the courses, how could they be held accountable? It makes no sense and we will certainly oppose this insensitive bureaucratic device.”

She also said, “This measure is nothing but a retaliatory action to the student feedback exercise undertaken by DUTA earlier this month at several colleges. More than 90% students are in favour of 3 year UG system and opposed the FYUP vehemently in their feedback. Now the VC wants to harass teachers with this tool as a tit for tat measure.”

Mrs Neeru Kapoor, a professor at Delhi College of Arts & Commerce said, “This system can be effective only when the students are mature enough and give their judgement properly. Right now our university is in a chaotic situation with the FYUP and semester system and genuine teachers will be penalised if the evaluation system is not genuine. How can a student who does not attend 60% classes decide on the effectiveness of a teacher?”

Another teachers’ body Academics for Action and Development (AAD) has also condemned the university administration and called it a regressive measure where complexities of caste, gender, religion and region come into operation and may result in harassment of teachers.

“I think this new system will be good if implemented well. Teachers will be more regular so as to teach us certain concepts which we are not familiar with. If they teach us using models, projects, through physical demonstration or case studies, then we’ll be able to grasp the course easily by these innovative methods”, said Vijay, a student of FYUP in Delhi University.

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DUTA alleges Delhi University with lack of infrastructure for security guards

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Recently, the University of Delhi ordained that the security guards employed by it would not be given any infrastructural aid while they would be on duty. As a matter of fact even chairs are not being provided by DU and it has closed down all the guard rooms.

Delhi University Teacher’s Association (DUTA) in its press release has categorically condemned such a decision and has called it savage. The reasons behind this order are still unknown, although there are some speculations. According to DUTA, when they asked for a reply for the same, the university did not give satisfactory responses. It transfered the burden on the contracting agencies and said that it has nothing to do with same and is only plying to the rules given to it by the agencies.

When DUTA posed more questions to DU, one of them being, “Why aren’t the guards who are employed by DU without a contractual agreement not being provided with infrastructural facilities?”, the University had no answers for the same.

“Such a mandate is outrageous and barbarous”, said Nandita Narain, president of DUTA. “University must give clear answers for the same.”, she added.

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Delhi University witnesses hike in fee structure

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In the past three years Delhi University has undergone such radical changes that now one does not bat an eye when the university announces another one of its “reforms”. The news of the hike in fees of almost all the colleges has remained unmentioned. Where the raise in amount is not much in Colleges like Daulat Ram, Miranda House and Hindu, it’s quite considerable in others like SRCC, St Stephen’s, Kirori Mal, LSR and Ramjas.

Yearly fee structure of Shri Ram College of Commerce is a record breaking Rs. 27,000 for third year students and Rs. 26,600 for students of second year. SRCC has always been one of the top paid colleges owing to its air conditioned class rooms but from the last time’s annual fees of Rs. 20,000, a leap of seven thousand is a bit too much. St Stephen’s College, on the other hand, increased its fee by 5 to 7 percent with the effect that a student of Humanities will now have to pay Rs. 22,435 annually as opposed to Rs. 19,925 last year.

The fee hike in Hansraj College is not so drastic in comparison. “There would be a hike but it won’t be more than 10 percent. The hike would be for all the courses except for the Bachelors of Technology (B.Tech) in Electronics,” Hans Raj College principal K.V. Kavatra was quoted saying. A student of B. Com (Hons.) for instance needs to pay Rs. 10,540 instead of last year’s Rs. 9000.

Miranda House, Hindu College and Lady Irvin College have not hiked their fee at all. Where Miranda House charges around Rs. 8000 annually, Hindu still remains one of the most affordable colleges with a fee structure ranging from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 7000. Sri Venkateswara College in South Campus is comparatively cheaper, when compared to LSR and JMC, and a student of Political Science and B. Com (Hons.) has to pay just Rs. 6505 yearly.  With a fee structure of Rs. 5000, Daulat Ram College is one of the most inexpensive colleges of Delhi University.

Reportedly, the university has nothing to do with the fee structure and the hike. The decision lies entirely with the colleges. Quite naturally, the students of colleges like SRCC are not happy. “We don’t have teacher assigned for some of the very basic subjects! There are ad-hoc teachers but we are not satisfied with any of them and we have to pay extra for that?!” said a second year student.

Image courtesy: www.frontiertreksindia.com

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