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Jamia Millia Islamia administration cracks down student-led protests; imposes arbitrary disciplinary proceedings

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Following the lead of several universities banning student activism on campus, Jamia Millia Islamia has intensified its crackdown on student-led protests. 

 

A circular was issued by the college administration dated 29 November 2024, explicitly banning protests, dharnas, sit-ins and any form of sloganeering against constitutional dignitaries, days after students raised slogans against the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. In lieu of these supposedly new guidelines, students requested permission to hold a sit-in protest on 15 December 2024, commemorating five years of the anti-CAA protests held at Jamia, which turned violent when a protesting student, Shadab Najar, was shot. Permission for holding this event was denied, and the college shut down the library and the canteen on the said date, citing “maintenance reasons,” which was allegedly done to suppress dissenting student voices. 

 

Despite this, approximately 300 students participated in the peaceful protest after class hours, so the said demonstration did not disrupt any academic activities. 

– Saurabh, a PhD student at Jamia via EdEx

 

The administration, however, quickly responded by issuing show-cause notices to Saurabh and four others, accusing them of disrupting campus order and pushing certain political agendas. On 6 February, 2025, the administration further issued Disciplinary Committee hearings against the concerned students, stating that their responses to the show-cause notices were unsatisfactory. In response to this, students began a sit-in protest demanding an immediate revocation of these show-cause notices and a withdrawal of Disciplinary Hearings issued against protesting students. Larger demands of the protesting students include a revocation of the guidelines issued on 29 November, 2024 and 29 August, 2022. 

 

When students know that standing up for their rights could cost them their education, it forces self-censorship, making the environment even more repressive. This decision reinforces the ongoing erosion of dissent, making it evident that critical conversations, even within academic spaces, are no longer welcome. 

– Azhar via Youth Ki Awaaz

 

The administration further refused to engage in dialogue with the students and responded by increasing barricading around campus, deploying 20+ security personnel armed with lathis around the protest premises. In a gross violation of the protesting students’ right to privacy, their names along with their addresses and phone numbers have been pasted outside the university’s front gate. 

 

This incident is not an isolated instance but part of a larger pattern of crackdowns on student activism and academic freedom, especially across public universities in India, reflecting the Center’s broader attempt to suppress dissent by directly attacking intellect.

 

Read Also: Student protest in Ramjas College against the sexual harassment charges on Prof. Dhani Ram violently disrupted by ABVP

 

Featured Image Credits: The Observer Post

 

Sakshi Singh

sakshisinghxyz96@gmail.com

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From Killing Ideas to Killing Intellectuals: The Institutional Murder of G.N. Saibaba

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Prof. G.N. Saibaba did not ‘pass away’ on 12th October 2024. He was gradually and brutally murdered by the state, the Indian academia, and our collective silence. The Indian university has become a graveyard, with students and academics being executed for voicing their opinions. Is staying silent the best that we are capable of?

 

The first time I came across G.N. Saibaba was in a social media post from 2022 that dealt with his ongoing case and featured the poem ‘I Refuse to Die’ from the collection of his prison poetry and letters, Why Do You Fear My Ways So Much? The poem and his case prompted me to buy the book and read more about him. G.N. Saibaba was the first poet I read after getting admitted to the literature program at the University of Delhi in 2022, and I carried the text with me to my first lecture in college only in the hope that someone would recognise it. The text became my first introduction to the oppression that the DU administration and the state are capable of meting out to a 90% disabled professor, even before I physically reached my college. It was only a matter of a few months before I would witness academic precarity firsthand in my department when my professors would be displaced, and later, Prof. Samarveer Singh of Hindu College would be forced to take his life. 

 

G.N. Saibaba’s death is simultaneously, both a rare case of UAPA in which each institution of the state and even the university administration worked in tandem with each other but led to Saibaba’s eventual bail and also another case of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) imposed on the academic-activist on no solid grounds, except for his alleged “links with the banned Maoist party.” 

 

Though the BJP-led government has made significant amendments to the UAPA and excessively imposed it on students, academics, and activists to curb any criticism of the state in the last decade, it is important to note that the draconian law was imposed on Saibaba by the Congress-led UPA government in 2012. The misuse of the colonial era law by the UPA government, a part of which today stands as an alternative and the opposition to the NDA alliance, allowed the exploitation of the law and for it to be made arbitrary by the latter, to the extent that the law was amended to shift the burden of proof from the accuser, usually the state, to the accused, making bails in such cases extremely rare.

 

Though Saibaba was granted bail, he was not even allowed to visit his mother’s funeral and was physically tortured by the prison authorities during his abduction-cum-arrest from DU campus and in jail that led to the paralysis of his left arm, denied basic healthcare facilities, and even contracted the coronavirus twice while he was in jail. Despite all of these grave concerns, Saibaba was continuously denied bail, even though several high profile individuals were given bail during the pandemic. When he was finally acquitted in October 2022 by the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, the Maharashtra government filed a petition and challenged the HC’s order at the Supreme Court, and on the very next day, Saturday 15th October 2022, a special bench of the SC comprising Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice M.R. Shah stayed the HC’s acquittal order, citing how the “brain is the most dangerous and integral part of committing terrorism-related offences”. 

 

The profiling of progressive academics, activists, and intellectuals as ‘terrorists’ has been made into a common practice by the state and the university administrations have also been actively complicit in this. It is alleged that a colleague of Saibaba at the Ram Lal Anand College was responsible for helping the state frame him in the case. Prof. Saibaba was also unfairly terminated from his job as an assistant professor at Ram Lal Anand College, DU even before he was proved guilty in the case. 

 

This atmosphere of fear and surveillance in the saffronised university space has not only been responsible for the death of several intellectuals but has also been actively used by the state to break networks of solidarity—in the case of Prof. Hany Babu who was a part of the defence committee for Saibaba and has also been incarcerated under UAPA. Even the lawyer Surendra Gadling who fought the case for Saibaba’s release was charged with UAPA and the judges who had acquitted Saibaba have faced consequences for the same. 

 

In conversation with DU Beat at a memorial organised for Saibaba, Professor Jenny Rowena, wife of Hany Babu, said,

We always talk about issues when somebody dies, then it becomes a viral thing. We saw Rohith Vemula when he was alive. How much attention do we give to these people? Even now, people who are in jail because they campaigned for Saibaba, like Hany Babu, Rona Wilson, and Surendra Gadling, who was their lawyer, are still in jail. These people also have a lot of health problems, so are we waiting for the same to happen to them? We all should really protest against UAPA. All condolence meetings that we have should also be against UAPA. There should be a mass movement against it, because they [the state] are using it ruthlessly now to crush any kind of opposition and dissent.”

 

The law has been reduced to a tool of state repression and is being increasingly used to arrest students, young activists, academics and other intellectuals who criticise the state under the garb of ‘national security’ and by labelling them as terrorists. Not only is it absurd that young students and 90% disabled professors are labelled as ‘terrorists’ and potential ‘threat to the nation’ but it is against the constitutional values that promote critical and free thinking. In fact the very structured and systematic manner in which each institution of the state and each public institution including the universities and the media is working in complicity with the state to corner dissenters is in itself a symptom of a regime of terror that the UAPA supposedly seeks to counter. 

 

It is also important to take into cognizance the notions of ‘terrorism’ that UAPA seems to be against. Is fighting for the rights of Adivasis and against their killings terrorism? Is peacefully opposing state operations such as Operation Green Hunt and Operation Samadhan an act of terrorism?

 

Is mere ‘links with Maoist organisations’, as Saibaba was accused of, or ‘possession of Marxist literature’ terrorism? If yes, do students of the humanities and social sciences, particularly literature and history, who study Marxism as a compulsory part of their course, pose a threat to the nation and are terrorists? Does mere engagement with or belief in a particular ideology that may or may not be critical of the state’s beliefs, constitute as terrorism? Today, even asking these questions can lead to the imposition of a UAPA case. In fact, academics who have worked on such topics for their PhDs are often harassed by prestigious academics and labelled as anti-national in job interviews. 

 

The law is being increasingly used to destroy public universities by imprisoning students such as Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima, and Sharjeel Imam, among hundreds of other students for peacefully protesting against divisive laws, an undeniable law of each citizen. The incarceration of these students under UAPA have also been orchestrated so as to ‘set an example’ for dissenting students and to silence them, developing a disquiet culture of suppression and destroying the culture of resistance that India’s public universities have been known for. 

 

The constant ‘red-flagging’ of individuals who identify with the Left or are in opposition to the state policy and may or may not identify with the Left, in conjunction with the profiling of individuals as “urban naxals” by state authorities, including the Prime Minister, not only qualifies as discrimination on the basis of ideas and leads to connotations of anti-state and anti-national individuals, but also leads to anti-intellectualism that has been identified as one of the most important factors behind the development of a fascist state.

 

Though the judges at the Supreme Court have been citing how “bail is the rule and jail is the exception”, it does not seem to apply to UAPA cases, more than half of which are not being investigated, as per the National Crime Records Bureau. In Saibaba’s murder and the human right violations as a part of it, the state did not merely attempt, though unsuccessfully, to kill his ideas but also take away his life, as it did with Father Stan Swamy, Pandu Narote, and SAR Geelani. By unfairly terminating his contract with the university, it was ensured that Saibaba does not get to teach his students ever again and one of his most heartfelt desires to teach students after being released from prison, was left unfulfilled. As Saibaba remarked in one of his letters to his students and colleagues from the prison:

I hope none of you should feel sympathetic to my condition. I don’t believe in sympathy; I only believe in solidarity. I intended to tell you my story only because I believe that it is also your story. Also because I believe my freedom is your freedom.”

 

Even in solitary confinement, his desire for freedom was not restricted to himself. The campaign against him was not only unfair to him but also his family and also his students, who were not allowed to be taught by a brilliant scholar, teacher, and translator whose translations of Kabir have been the most significant and timely in English so far. 

 

Though we have been reduced to observing birthdays, death anniversaries, and anniversaries of arrests of activists and students as they remain incarcerated without trials and more than a handful of unsuccessful hearings, the outrage at the murder of Prof. G.N. Saibaba is both a culmination of our complicity in his murder and simultaneously a rupture in the amnesia surrounding state repression under UAPA. That should pave the way for a movement against UAPA and the larger culture of saffronisation-infused anti-intellectualism. For the message should be clear: the state should not and cannot kill ideas, let alone individuals. As Saibaba himself claimed and rightly so, he and his ideas and struggles refuse to be forgotten and to die..

 

Read Also: DU Collective comes together in solidarity and remembrance of Professor G.N. Saibaba

 

Featured Image Credits: Shahid Tantray’s Instagram 

 

Vedant Nagrani

vedantnagrani12@gmail.com 

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1000 Days in Detention: No Defender for Kashmiri Human Rights Activist Khurram Parvez

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The ongoing incarceration of human rights defender Khurram Parvez for over 1,000 days under UAPA charges showcases the severe crackdown on human rights advocacy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution on 5 August, 2019 served as a medium to trample down the civil society and human rights defenders in Jammu and Kashmir. While the region has never been a haven for independent, unbiased journalism, the repression of media and civil society has only gotten more brazen after stripping the state of its special status and downgrading it into a Union Territory.

Khurram Parvez, the most prominent human rights defender, has time and again been targeted and silenced by the Indian government for documenting human rights violations in the region and seeking accountability for the said violations. He is the founding member of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and the chairman of the Philippine-based Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance, an international organisation that looks into forced disappearance in Kashmir and elsewhere in Asia.  Parvez received the 2006 Reebok Human Rights Award and the 2023 Martin Ennals Award. He has also been named one of the 100 most influential people of 2022 by Time magazine. However, all of the accolades and international recognition could not stop Parvez from being incarcerated at the Rohini High Security Prison, New Delhi, for 1000 days and counting.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against Parvez in October 2020. On 22 November, 2021, the JKCCS office in Srinagar was raided, and Parvez was arrested on charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, (UAPA) 1967.

The most astounding fact about the case is the chargesheet, which cites two of the reports produced by his civil society organisation. The chargesheet claims the reports to be “false and fabricated” and tarnishing India’s image at the international level. By using the reports as evidence for the arbitrary detention of Parvez, the NIA criminalised human rights research and fact-finding, which otherwise is internationally recognised work. This can have alarming consequences for human rights organisations doing similar work elsewhere.

Whether any particular incident in the report is wrong, I don’t know. If you don’t agree with a particular incident, you give your alternate argument. But you can’t criminalise fact-finding as a whole

-Mihir Desai, senior counsel in the High Court of Bombay and Supreme Court of India.

While the region continues to be suppressed and the voices clamped down, the veil of normalcy is being propagated all over the mainstream media. Instead of taking accountability and investigating the claims of human rights violations, the authorities have arrested, manhandled, and intimidated those who have voiced their findings and sought justice. The press and civil society organisations in the region for decades have been the cornerstone of the Kashmiri public sphere and their pleas. The large-scale crackdown on these organisations has left the people of the region helpless and their atrocities quashed. 

The fact of the matter is that human rights violations at the hands of security forces have been rampant in Kashmir for the past 30 years. That’s a fact. AFSPA and PSA have been used in a very discriminatory manner. People have been tortured. People have been encountered.

said Desai

One of the JKCCS reports, used as evidence for Parvez’s detention, was published in 2015. It aimed to investigate the role of the state in Jammu and Kashmir, which had resulted in more than 8,000 disappearances, 70,000 deaths, 6,000 unmarked mass graves, and countless cases of torture and sexual violence. NIA claimed that the said report was fabricated and gave away sensitive details regarding the military deployment. However, the report has been readily available on the internet since it was published. Instead of communicating with the organisation regarding the sensitive material back then, it is being used in a supposed terrorism case after nine years. 

It is not the only time Parvez has been incarcerated. In 2016, one day after Parvez was impeded from travelling to Switzerland to attend the 33rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, he was arrested and charged under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Besides Parvez, several other Kahmiri journalists and human rights activists have abstained from travelling and collecting their awards.

Asif Sultan was unable to collect his Press Freedom Award from the American National Press Club in 2019 due to being imprisoned. Sanna Irshad Mattoo also could not collect her Pulitzer Prize due to the administrative orders restricting her from leaving Delhi in 2022. Further, Irfan Mehraj recently won the Human Rights and Religious Freedom Journalism Award while incarcerated with Khurram Parvez.

The systematic use of UAPA allows the Indian administration to chase down human rights defenders by mobilising the anti-terrorism discourse. This impunity, harnessed by the UAPA, has accelerated the demise of human rights in India, which can only be reversed with the amendment of the said law.

Khurram Parvez being arbitrarily detained for more than 1000 days and any voice of “dissent” being trampled before it is even heard is a testament to a flawed democracy. How normal is the normalcy when you have to silence the voices of people from within? 

Read also: The Donkey Dance of UAPA: Criminalising Dissent in a Hollowing Democracy

Featured Image Credits: The Leaflet

Reeba Khan

reebakhannn@gmail.com

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The Clock is Ticking for India’s Education System, What’s Next?

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Saffronisation of Education

In the aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections, the nation stands shook by the NEET and UGC-NET paper leaks. Besides, privatisation of public education and saffronisation of the curriculum were major issues that were raised recurrently throughout the decade. While the present diaspora signals towards a supposedly balanced Lok Sabha with the Opposition winning close to majority seats, is there any positive hope for the future of public education in India?

June 4, 2024, allegedly invited a new ray of hope for Indian democracy. Netizens chanted, ‘Democracy is back!’, the opposition rejoiced with a near majority, and a sliver ray of hope was projected for the upcoming 5 years. Studio-pandits dominated television screens with their expertise upon a more balanced parliamentary representation- with the INDIA Alliance thundering at nearly 230 seats, and the Congress owning 99 of them. ‘A balanced Parliament will keep the Modi Goliath in check’, was the unanimous declaration. ‘Economic measures will be balanced out further with GST in check!’, ‘Hindutva politics will be in check!’, ‘The Constitution is safe and it will be hard to pass the UCC (Uniform Civil Code) with a strong opposition!’, Twitteratis declared.

However, through all the discussions about the potential action-plan of ‘Modi 3.0’, there was one particular sector that was left out- Public Education, the same ministry that is now facing major hit-backs 15 days into ‘Modi 3.0’.

On June 24, as the 18th Lok Sabha launched its functioning, Opposition ministers were witnessed to chant ‘NEET! Shame!’ as the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, walked towards the podium to undertake his oath for the newly-formed Government. While student protests asking for ‘RE-NEET’ and a CBI probe into the paper leak overtook the streets of New Delhi and across India, the future of 24 lakh medical aspirants lies uncertain in the hands of a government averse to the concerns of national education previously.

When it comes to the Modi report card in terms of public education in India, the sector has undergone significant tinkering in terms of rewriting NCERT textbooks and introduction of the National Education Policy 2020; the government has failed to look into the administrative and managerial failures to implement such measures and policies within most government-run schools. With rising summer temperatures across the subcontinent and the atrocity of climate change, the education sector is on the verge of suffering yet another setback- potential dropouts and absenteeism by students due to lack of air-conditioning or functional fans in government-run schools and colleges giving rise to miserable environments which are not conducive for learning. An instance worth mentioning is the May-term examinations conducted by Delhi University amidst scorching 50 degrees Celsius.

When it comes to investment in public education, the government’s ambitious National Education Policy promised a whopping 6% of GDP by 2020. However, as per a report by Scroll.in, expenditure pertaining to education counts at 2.8% of GDP in 2019-20, and a marginal increase to 3.1% in 2022. Contrastingly, the BJP’s 2014 manifesto claimed that, “investment in education yields the best dividend.” However, the ruling party’s words have hardly aligned with their actions. Another report by Scroll.in draws upon the comparison that between 2004-24, the Congress-led Union Government invested nearly 0.61% of the GDP annually towards education. On the other hand, between 2014-24, the number significantly reduced to 0.44% of the GDP annually. 

Simultaneously, the National Education Policy of 2020, introduced by the Modi government has also faced several criticisms. Several critics, student activists from the left-bloc and academicians claim that NEP has fuelled the privatisation of public education through exorbitant fee hikes, which makes it less inclusive for the economically-marginalized. Numerous exit options open doors for candidates to drop out of college much more easily. While NEP aims towards digital enhancement of classrooms- several academic institutions in India lack basic infrastructure to implement the same- several schools and colleges even lack facilities like proper hygienic washrooms and water-filters.

Under the guise of “syllabus rationalisation”, the country has witnessed its school textbooks being rewritten, its history reshaped to give birth to a ‘monocultural narrative’ at the expense of India’s multiculturalism. While school textbooks are crucial for the construction of a ‘civilizational memory’, underfunding and budget cuts in public schools hamper the development of human capital and the long-term growth of the nation. 

Since 2017, the NCERT has undergone significant changes in its curriculum, all of which were passed against a weak-opposition in the House. Several instances such as the exclusion of the Mughal era from Class 12 history textbooks, removal of texts on the caste system, social movements, brief ban of the RSS post-independence and Gandhi’s unpopularity with Hindu extremists, were observed in 2022. Furthermore, in 2023, Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was excluded from the curriculum as well.

 Post the Lok Sabha election of 2024, the NCERT took another move towards removing any mentions of the Babri Masjid and swapped it with the phrase, “three-domed structure”. Such omissions in the curriculum were justified with fervour by BJP MPs later. 

In 2022, BJP leader, Kapil Mishra explained the exclusion of the Mughal era from the syllabus alleging that “thieves” were referred to as the “Mughal rulers” and this initiative of reshaping the curriculum will “shine light on the truth.” Similarly, on being questioned about the removal of the mention of the Babri Masjid from textbooks, NCERT Director, Dinesh Prasad opines that, “teaching about riots in school textbooks can create violent, depressed citizens.” On the other hand, several critics and netizens claim that reshaping historical narratives is a convenient way to “whitewash the Ayodhya dispute.” However, it is not difficult to point out that the changes undergone by the NCERT in recent years reflect a strong saffronized stance- an alleged BJP-led government move to eliminate text that challenges the Hindutva worldview. 

While curriculum-reshaping and a lack of basic infrastructure hamper public schools in the country, the BJP manifesto had promised to bridge the digital divide persisting within the country. The online-education era propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic showed that students had scant access to digital devices and the internet. Moreover, the pandemic-era led to major learning losses that are yet to be addressed. 

The Modi government has not fared well through the decade when it comes to funding higher-education institutions as well. The Government changed the mode of financing from grants to loans for such institutions, which consequently caused central institutions struggle to repay loans and in turn pressurise their administration to increase fees or compromise upon other aspects of education. The BJP-majority government also rolled out a scheme to identify 50 ‘Institutes of Eminence’ by 2019 and develop them into world-class universities. However, the said-scheme has slobbered and only 20 institutions have been identified till now. 

When it comes to affirmative action, the government introduced a 10% reservation for economically-backward classes and directed public institutions to increase their seats for the same. However, several institutions lacked classroom infrastructure to intake students above the usual capacity. Casteism runs rampant to this day on academic campuses. In December 2023, the Education Minister replied to a question in the Lok Sabha that, “In the preceding five years, 2622 STs, 2424 SCs, and 4596 OBC students dropped out of central universities.” This paints an ugly picture of the caste discrimination that bleeds through the country even today. 

Moreover, in another attack on minorities, the government withdrew the Maulana Azad Fellowship for Muslim students and even excluded students from humanities background from the National Overseas Scholarship intended for students from marginalized backgrounds.

Besides, the education domain from 2014-24 witnessed the maximum number of student protests- with student political parties and youth wings like AISA, SFI, and NSUI holding rallies and marches against the Gaza War, Saffronisation, NEP, fee hikes, and hostel infrastructure for women, to ABVP joining protests related to the NEET 2024 paper leak. 

Out of the endless issues that have been raised with the Modi Government’s decade of “revamping Indian education,” the most pertinent of these remains the display of religiosity in otherwise secular campus spaces. From the Hijab ban that proved to be a litmus test for democratic secular values to the Ayodhya Consecration ceremony that was widely celebrated with ‘hawans’ and ‘bhandaras’ across academic institutions, there have been monocultural biases when it comes to regulations upon displays of religiosity within learning spaces. This needs the state to create a healthy balance between the sanctity of secular educational spaces and the individual right to religious expression. However, with the widespread saffronisation of education across the country, rewriting textbooks and faculty displacements, the BJP’s attack on public education reflects an ethno-cultural majoritarian election agenda. 

Moreover, several attempts have been made to document mass-faculty displacements in public colleges, with highly-qualified teachers being fired despite years of experience due to ideological and other pertinent differences; the faculty displacement within the Sociology department of IPCW in 2023 and Ramjas’ English Department in the same year are noteworthy instances. This has led to widespread agitation amongst students who were afraid to speak out amidst stringent suppressive measures taken by the administration of the respective colleges.

While the administrative, managerial and intellectual architecture of the Indian education system is being rapidly eroded by aggressive saffron policies, one can only hope that a healthy Opposition granted by the 18th Lok Sabha elections can voice the concerns of the students. Meanwhile, the NEET-fiasco has dug out the deeply disturbed state of testing agencies and the ignorance of the education ministry to preserve the sanctity of public education. 

In such circumstances, one can only hope student protests aren’t curbed, the sanctity of investigation bureaus is maintained and opposing voices are respected within the state as a crucial part of the democratic mechanism rather than being equated with the ‘anti-national’ tag. India’s public education system is a ticking time-bomb. It is only a matter of time before it explodes and rubs out the sanctity of what we call India itself.

Read Also: Faculty Displacement at IPCW: Impact on Students and Academic Integrity

Featured Image Credits: Cartoonist Satish Acharya

Priyanka Mukherjee

priyankam@dubeat.com

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Trying to Reclaim Universities: A Melancholic Story

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What happened to the voices of the campus? Where are we with the freedom to express dissent?

 

How do you manage to live in a highly polarised world? Being an apolitical person you can ignore, or if you hold the responsibility of calling yourself political, you can “allege” or “accuse.” But how do you manage to make sense of things when the world being ravaged by hate is your future workplace? For student journalists or the students of media, it’s the most worrying question. There is no doubt that we are facing a massive downfall of the media in the last few years, from the very orthodox and conservative relative to the very vocal and performative activist group. Everyone alleges that it is the media that is creating the ruckus, just the different ones for them.

 

From constantly and directly promoting hatred in the name of religion, targeting minorities, lobbying and creating propaganda around deliberately selective issues, and heckling, there’s almost no ditch that our mainstream media has not stepped into. This is nothing less than a moment of crisis for future workers in this arena. But as I look around, the worry of the future leaves me and the present stress grips me harder. 

 

A few months back, a notice was released to all the DU students that they would need permission from the Proctor to protest. Moreover, there has been an erasure of resistance art from campuses, section 144 was imposed in Jamia for two long months, deployment of police forces inside the campuses has been frequent, violence in Jamia’s library by the police came to light,cancellation of Sarfoora Zargar’s degree, and hundreds of other actions that signify the movement at large to  distance students and campuses from the larger political movement. The administrations, which were supposed to be benefactors of students, have turned into watchdogs bent upon making the vocal universities into apolitical centres of study.

 

 After the pandemic, such tendencies have increased with the batch that did not get to live their campus life. It feels like a gap altogether, as if something was lost that could not be recovered. The admin has taken advantage of this opportunity in the worst way possible. There is an urgent need to revive political deliberation on campuses again.

 

 The trampling down of dissent in any form across all the university campuses is worrisome that should be a public topic for distress. The concept of universities as free spaces for deliberation and discussion has eroded, as has the opportunity for Indian students to have a space to themselves free of hatred and censorship.

 

 So, how do you manage to make sense of things when the world being ravaged by hate is the one you are currently living in? With the help of students who still hold the bravado of sitting on protests, well aware that there can be consequences, and those who are determined to maintain the same atmosphere on campus. With the help of Meenakshi, who did not deter from filling a petition in the court against the arbitary removal of her candidature from the LSR SU elections, with students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and St. Stephens not letting enablers of hegemony and patriarchy into their campuses, and with the students of National School of Drama (NSD) singing Dheere Dheere yahan ka mausam badalne laga hai while their Chairperson arrives to meet them after a long protest and hunger strike.

Kashish Shivani

kashishs@dubeat.com

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Transparency in DU: An Inside Joke

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The red glistening walls housing the dreams of lacs of students also house within themselves heaps of issues that wait for the dust to be removed from their face. 

When these issues lie on the surface waiting to be scratched upon, the onus falls on student organisations, activists and journalists.

 

For the part of student journalists, what goes on behind a published report? Just the protest or the issue at hand or loads of trashy politics and games of hushing. The search for quotes to provide legitimacy for the piece is a search like no other. To be ignored at the whim of others is not a new thing, but to be restrained from writing was a completely new experience for a writer that came to me as a student journalist. 

 

What irked me the most in the initial days was the deliberate silence of almost all of my teachers on the very issues that concerned them. The shock came with a strict message from the administration to not to consult any teacher directly for any issue. The next experience that awaited me was from the very society that I worked for which tried to restrain an article about the misconduct of society members towards the outstation students. 

 

With each passing report, the politics of the backend became more twisted and turned. From people restraining us from reporting upon the publicly available information to organisations keeping their solidarity private for the show of some people, I saw the ‘dark’ that resides in the red bricks. 

 

Just like the objects in the mirror that are closer than they appear, the issues that looked smaller were huge in their very own sense. And in the midst of this hullabaloo of some people trying to voice the issues and others trying to shut it down, I missed the inside joke of DU: Pretence is the play that everyone loves. So the very organisations that might be vocal about the declining freedom of the Press in India would be the ones shutting the issues at the level they operate. 

 

Thus was broken the dream of witnessing politics and change at the university level for maybe at a place where election results are decided with the gifted items, the dream was a mere delusion painted by the cinema that only encaptures and stops with its delivered euphoria. 

 

The urge to break through the opaque walls to reach the transparent core is often defeated in the entire process of searching for information so the question that appears at the end is – Who is being joked upon and by whom in this ‘humorous’ circle?  

Kashish Shivani

kashishs@dubeat.com

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Myths About College Life Busted!

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When we have not experienced something first hand, we tend to believe anything that is a popular opinion regarding it. So, if you are a fresher then you tend to believe everything that into pop culture and select Instagram posts show about college. However, not all of what you see is true. Here are some of the myths about college. Let’s bust them!

1. You won’t have to study

Just get your school life done with. Do your class 12 well and that is about it. You don’t have to study at college, you’ll pass all exams!

Let us take this moment to call you out of this misconception. You must or should have been really worried about your class 12 results and you should have worked hard for them. And, just to make sure you give it your all, people tell you that the struggle ends after your school is over. Definitely, college is not as hard as that until the last year. However, it does not mean you don’t have to study at all. Your score from semester one to the last semester adds up to count the final percentage at the end of your college, which will not only stick to your CV for the rest of your life but also play a crucial role in getting you a job or further admissions.

2. Life will suddenly turn into a Karan Johar movie

When your college is about to begin, your parents will take you out for shopping and your friends at college will talk about the freedom and fun you’re about to throw yourself into. With all the amazing clothes and stories given to you, you might begin daydreaming about your college life as one of those KJo movies. Yes, a few moments might definitely be like you’re on the golden screen. However, it is important to remember and be prepared for the fact that not everything will be as glamorous. There will be failures, heartbreaks and god forbid, bad hair days!  But what do all the protagonists do when in trouble? Get back up and emerge out of it!

3. You will get friends for life

This is not true for everybody. You do get contacts for life. You will receive and give several calls to your college mates throughout your life, for work. However, you might not remain tight friends with them. While in college, you will definitely have a ‘gang’ of friends. However, people tend to get scattered and busy once college ends. Only lucky people are able to sustain these lifelong friendships. But, the good news is that you are living in the era of social media. Most of your friends might be just one tap away from you, therefore, you have a great possibility to remain in touch for a long while.

4. You have to defend yourself in this cold world

Your parents are seeing you grow as you enter the new college environment. They have seen and been in touch with your school, earlier. They used to trust the school, its people, and its rules well. However, they now are a little paranoid about college. They will tell you all sorts of precautions you have to take to defend yourself in the ‘cold world’ you’re about to enter. However, it is not true. Do not pull up your guards or over think about anything at college. It will just cause mistrust. College is as warm as a school if you want it to be. There will be well-wishers, there will be competitors like there always are at every place! Just remember to take sensible decisions and really know a person before relying on them. That done, you are good to go!

Feature Image Credit: Hindustan Times

Khyati Sanger

khyatis@dubeat.com

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DUB Speak

An Ode To You, Dear Reader

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From a time when student reporters had to run around to capture pictures of protests and then send them to their copy editor to ensure that it goes for the weekly print issue, to posting live stories on Instagram – our journalism has travelled a long way in the past 10 years. Amidst the chaos of getting quotes from people in various administrative hierarchies, student leaders, documenting the events and happenings around the campus, and raising crucial issues regarding gender and sexual health among students – we have played a major role in initiating conversations through our student journalism in the past decade.
In the words of Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, “Information is the first step towards liberation.” Be it through printed copies across colleges or reports on our social media handles, we have tried our best to keep you updated about what all happens in DU, while sincerely hoping that the experience has been as liberating for you as it has for us. Right from raising issues concerning women’s safety in the campus after the Nirbhaya case in 2012 and the haphazard introduction of the Four Year Undergraduate Program in 2013, to raising the issues regarding the right to dissent and debate post the violence at Ramjas College in February 2017 – we have represented students in media and given a voice to the unheard. As completely independent journalists, we have embraced our responsibility, sometimes even at the cost of our safety.
We are an entirely student-run platform – a badge of honour we wear with pride. From ideating stories, writing, investigating, raising funds to print copies, to regular managerial work, every little thing in our organisation is handled solely by undergraduate students. We recruit students, train them to excel in their various fields, and prepare them to work in professional settings. In the past 10 years, students who have worked at DU Beat in various capacities have gone ahead to lead major teams at Google, pursued journalism in globally influential outlets like The New York Times and Huffington Post, excelled in academics as Commonwealth Scholars, and begun their own media initiatives.

Externally, our journalism has also allowed our readers to succeed in their lives post their time at Delhi University. Many students still write to us, detailing how our news about admissions helped them bag a seat in the college of their choice. Inspired by our journalism, many of our readers have gone ahead to pursue a career in journalism, while others have benefited from our humble initiative of an independent student-run media outlet.

After successfully organising Mushaira, the Literature festival of Hindu College on 30th and 31st January with the Hindu College Parliament, to commemorate 10 years of independent student journalism, our team would like to raise a toast to our long-standing relationship with you, dear reader. Let the University and these printed words stand witness to our effort of making our University a more efficient, democratic, and liberating space.

 

Srivedant Kar
srivedantk@dubeat.com

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DUB Speak

How to Win DUSU Elections

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The Delhi University Students’ Union elections are just around the corner and the election fever is in full swing. In this context, we analyse the finer nuances of what sways the DUSU election results.

  • The name game

While campaigning, candidates often change how their name is spelt. Posters and hoardings will often bear the names of candidates with one or more letters misspelt. This leads to the following benefit – if there are any pending cases or FIRs against them, it would be harder for the average Joe to look it up. The second benefit allows them to manipulate the ballot number they received by adding “A” at the beginning of their name as a prefix. For example, the 2015 DUSU President Mohit Nagar filed his nomination as “AAA Mohit Nagar” which resulted in him getting ballot number 1. The ballot list is made in alphabetical order which means that the candidates with the maximum number of As at the beginning of their name would get 1 as their ballot number. Since a lot of people in DUSU elections vote just for the sake of it, the probability of them voting for the first candidate on the list is considerably higher. To combat this, in 2015 the Delhi High Court described this practise as “flawed” and finally put an end to it.

  • Money matters

Freebies ranging from movie tickets, chocolates, t-shirts, pens, notebooks, water park tickets, and what not are distributed during the election season. But it does not stop there. Major student political parties also go to large PGs to promote and campaign for their candidates. An anonymous resident of Aparna Girls Hostel, a private PG that houses around 300 girls, says, “Last year both the ABVP and NSUI came to our PG to campaign. They spent around 20-30 minutes there and also sponsored special food for the day”. These freebies are aggressively thrown around as the election day comes closer in order to sway the maximum number of voters until the very end.

  • Graffiti

Without any regard to either public and private property or to aesthetics, candidates spray paint their names over walls, buildings, pavements, hoardings, and any flat surface which catches the eye. The idea is to familiarise the maximum number of people with a certain name before election day. If the rival party has already put up their logo on a particular wall, instances have shown that political candidates are not above throwing black paint all over it. Every year, in the name of elections, these walls are besmirched with black spray paint and posters.

  • Personal touch

Any politician worth the salt knows how important personal touch is. Vox populi vox dei is an ancient Latin phrase which means that the voice of people is the voice of God. Candidates in DUSU elections are more than aware of this philosophy.  Once people want a particular candidate to win because they think he/she deserves it, there is little that can stop them. As soon as the logistics are dealt with, door-to-door campaigning begins. Personally helping people, reaching out to them, acquiring  goodwill, and building up a network of loyal friends are keys to unlocking the puzzle that is DUSU elections. On the day of the elections it is this goodwill acquired across months of rigorous campaigning and a band of loyal supporters and friends that ensures victory.

  • Party lines

Contrary to what most of us would like to believe, student politics does sync with national politics. DUSU elections are a playground for major national political parties. Most DUSU presidents acquire a certain degree of political relevance and end up with successful careers working with their parent organisations or parties. Delhi University is also a recruitment pool for these parties. A considerable number of today’s political leaders started their careers in Delhi University itself.

As far as the DUSU election results are concerned, the stakes are extremely high. It is a matter of immense pride to win the student elections in one of the largest universities in the country. The pivotal driving force in these elections – perhaps the sole factor that makes it so very grand – is the involvement of national parties. When Delhi University becomes the battle ground for the biggest political parties in the country, one can expect a magnificent showdown.

 

Image Credits: Kinjal Pandey for DU Beat

Kinjal Pandey
kinjalp@dubeat.com

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Admissions 2017

Dear Freshers: Admissions Special Article

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Dear Freshers,

Welcome to the University of Delhi. Take a moment to feel the joy of having achieved a massive milestone of your life – making it into DU. This might be an accident of circumstances or a culmination of your endless efforts, but for simplicity’s sake, let’s just say that the whole world conspired to help you achieve your dreams. Now that you’ve successfully taken admission in the most prestigious educational institute in the country, it’s time to comprehend the gravity of this stage in your life. Delhi University will give you all that a college experience possibly can – education, amusement, friends, and most importantly, an identity.

Be ready to expect the unexpected. Every notion that you currently hold will be challenged in this campus, where every fleeting moment of idleness is filled with the urge to achieve something. The people you are going to meet, the ideas you are going to encounter, the academic environment which used to be a mark-milking tool for you until now, are all going to change, even as this University continues to be well-known for its almost meme-worthy standards of education. Stereotypes of how DU kids carry jholas and never actually study are hilarious in themselves, but they function as badges of honour for students in their time here. Popular for harbouring, or at least generating, a liberal and culturally aware generation of students, DU allows you to push yourself, whether that be through academics or extracurriculars. Well-rounded and up-to-date syllabi, along with the general elective under the Choice Based Credit System, come together to provide students a holistic education. The numerous societies within colleges, as well as university-wide associations further allow students to expand their horizons and develop their talents. Portraying ideas, thoughts, and injustices through dance, music, and theatre, is no small feat, and you’ll get your moment of glory throughout the much-publicised fest season. We guarantee that being part of a society or student association will give you the experience of a lifetime.

It’s no secret that the varsity has produced a variety of individuals – scholars, athletes, and even numerous Miss Indias. The opportunities that DU offers, coupled with its cultural and ideological diversity, produce a distinctively unique environment. Three years in this place changes you – undoubtedly for the better.

The age-old traditions of skipping classes to chill in the lawns of your college, or to run outside for a quick bite of Tom Uncle’s Maggi in North Campus are just as crucial to the DU experience as the education. You will create an entire bank of memories from this period of your life, such as begging your class representative to mark your proxy and photocopying notes for the entire semester a week before your final exam. But the most significant change in your life will not be learning how to navigate the Delhi metro or how to bargain most effectively for junk jewellery. It will be learning about yourself.

Some people believe that this University thrives on its past glory. We beg to differ. We believe it draws its glory from you. We believe that as you embark on this journey of your college life with a nervous, excited, and hopeful state of mind, you’ll end up with many achievements, but the most noteworthy of these would be your identity. As you steer your life for the next three years among classes, societies, and this mad city, remember that it’s up to you to become a part of the collective pride of this University.

You may leave DU as a completely new person than when you entered, or you may leave as merely a more refined version of your teenage self. But what’s undeniable is that you will be a truer version of yourself after having gone through all that DU has to offer. So sit tight, because you’re in for the ride of a lifetime at the place you’ll soon call home – Delhi University.

We wish you all the best!

 

With love on behalf of the DU Beat Team,

Vineeta Rana

Srivedant Kar

 

Feature Image Credits: The Odyssey Online

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