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Crisis at the prestigious Delhi University

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Who is to be blamed?
The year’s old fame of Delhi University has now turned into sham when thousands of its professors are on roads protesting about the incompetence of university administration. The professors, who have worked relentlessly for years and who have taught the sharpest brains of the country, teach with insecure minds. Approximately 4500 teachers in Delhi University are serving on an ad-hoc basis. This means that they are appointed for a fixed period of 4 months and are reappointed as per the whims and fancies of the college administration.
One of the major reasons for this uproar has been the 28 August circular, which has created a history in itself. Never before had the administration been so cruel to its teachers. The Delhi University assistant registrar in the circular addressed to Principals, Directors, Colleges, and Institutions informed:
“The colleges are…advised to fill up the permanent vacancies at the earliest and till permanent appointments are made, colleges may appoint guest faculty, if required, against new vacancies arising first time in academic session 2019-2020”
This means that the rejoining of the existing 4500 ad-hoc teachers is at stake since the circular clearly states the appointment of guest faculty instead of ad-hoc faculty. The entire teaching fraternity was taken aback. They were earlier hoping for permanent appointments instead of ad-hoc and now they even fear to lose their ad-hoc jobs. Some ad-hoc teachers have been teaching for more than ten years now and have a dependent family. One line of the circular was enough to make them experience sleepless nights.
Here it is important to understand the difference between ad-hoc and guest faculty. The ad-hoc teachers extract a salary as is fixed by the University Grants Commission and are given voting rights equivalent to permanent faculty. Apart from this, they are also involved in all the academic and extracurricular activities of the college/institution. Whereas on the other hand the guest faculty are expected to come, deliver a lecture and go. They are paid a nominal amount per lecture delivered and have no voting rights.
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) took the cause of teachers and left no stone unturned to stop the implementation of such draconian circular that deprived teachers of their fundamental right to life and livelihood. Since August, they have been demanding the withdrawal of this circular, but the Vice-Chancellor turned deaf ears. The teachers when went unheard decided to boycott all the Delhi University examination invigilation and evaluation duties and resolved to protest at the VC Regal Lodge. This created a deadlock in the university and without faculty, the colleges are having a tough time in conducting the university final examinations. Who is to be blamed for such ruckus? Did the Vice-Chancellor overlook or is it the administrative inertia? Or is it the politically vested interest of few that have brought the entire education system to a halt? Why is it that whenever the ad-hoc teachers demand permanency, they are instead made insecure about their ad-hoc jobs?
Earlier also, when the voices of ad-hoc teachers strengthened for permanency, the teaching roster was changed from 200 point to 13 point. The reserved category posts as per the 13 point roster would reduce and thus the entire focus and efforts shifted towards getting the 200 point roster back in implementation. After winning this long fight with administration, now when the teachers demanded permanency, they were deprived of their existing jobs and they demanded the continuation of their existing ad-hoc jobs, forgetting about being permanent. Many questions arise. Whether the professors at the most prestigious university deserve such insecurity? Don’t they have a right to life and livelihood? What are the reasons behind the administration’s inaction and government’s delay in filling up the permanent posts? These unanswered questions are probably the reasons for the declining education system in India.

Mansi Babbar
Assistant Professor
University of Delhi

Feature Image Credits: Yudu Ushanandani

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The curious case of the 39 storey building

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The construction of a 39 floor High Rise building near Vishvavidyala Metro Station has raised important questions about ownership of this land. While the Private Builders braces up to construct a multi-story high rise complex, they want us to believe that the land belongs to Defense Ministry.

 

Student bodies, teachers association, environmentalists all of them came together to fight against the construction of 39 storey high rise building near Vishvavidyalaya metro station since early November this year. Their plight? How come an area dedicated to a university be used for corporate functionaries. The road that starts from the Vishvavidalaya Metro Station leads to the School of Open Learning, University Stadium which houses Cluster Innovation Centre and the Delhi School of Journalism, the VC house and Gandhi Bhavan. Imagine, amidst this path a giant corporate building standing which has nothing to do with academics let alone the University. This can be a reality if Young Builders Private Limited is allowed to execute its project at the site.

Going back to the disputed land’s history, it was in 2001 when the Ministry of Defense leashed the land to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the construction of Vishvavidyala Metro Station. After using a part of it for metro construction, DMRC subleased the rest to a private company called Young Builders Pvt. Ltd for 218 Crore Rupees. DMRC selling it at more than 5 times the rate it bought (it bought the land from Defense Ministry at 42.4 Crore) is worth noticing, that too when public money is involved.

Since early November, protests started erupting in the north campus demanding the authorities to intervene and stop the construction. Campaigns like ‘Solidarity Through Food’ and ‘Indefinite Protest Strike’ were launched to garner eyeballs. A few days later, you see “Ye Zameen Raksha Mantralaya Ki hai” written on the boundary that walls the land. But, as mentioned earlier, the land was sold to DMRC way back in 2001 and sub leashed to a private company Young Builder Pvt. Ltd, a few years later. So why are the landowners trying to deceive the students by surrendering the blame to Defense Ministry? There’s no denial of the fact that the government might have an active role in this deceit too.

Young Builder Pvt. Ltd is, after all, a non-government company established in 1981 under the Registrar of Companies Act. The company was founded by Vinod Puranmal Bansal who also owns a few other companies.

The construction of this building will compromise with the safety of women living around, torment the environmental stability of the ridge area and create difficulties for people with disabilities who pass through the locality on a daily basis. It’s not that the University has not tried to stop the construction. In 2012, Delhi University moved the High Court against the construction but Court ruled against the varsity saying that the land doesn’t come under North Campus’ jurisdiction. In 2018, DU again filed a case in the National Green Tribunal and the Delhi High Court, but both of them rejected the appeal. In February this year, University appealed to the Supreme Court challenging the previous rulings.

Whereat one end talks of closing the north campus is doing rounds, erecting an odd building out of nowhere which is not even closely related to the varsity or academics will simply dilute the idea of Delhi University. Moreover, the amount of environmental harm it will create can not be undermined,

Feature Image Credits: Jaishree Kumar for DU Beat

Priyanshu

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DUB Speak

The United Nurse Association Crisis

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Since 1st November, 2019, the United Nurse Association has been protesting at Jantar Mantar for minimum wage. However, the struggle started in 2011, won on paper in 2016 with the Supreme Court verdict, and yet they are denied it till today.

The United Nurse Association (UNA) has been protesting day and night at Jantar Mantar to implement the Supreme Court verdict they fought for minimum wage years ago. The UNA caters to more than 10,000 private nurses that further carter to tens of thousands of patients in private hospitals.

The struggle began in 2011 and continued with many marches and protests to meet with the Chief Minister (CM) of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, to raise this issue. After being told in every meeting by him that he can only do something after the Supreme Court passes the verdict, the entire nurse association worked in same terrible conditions fighting for minimum wage.

Viveki, General Secretary of United Nurse Association said, “We were called to the residence of the CM at Civil Lines, Delhi. We begged them to help us; he promised that he’ll go to the extent of even protesting with us once the verdict comes out. However, after the verdict, he has refused all sorts of communication with us.”

However, after a tedious battle the verdict was passed in 2016 in Supreme Court in favour of the nurses.

As per the Supreme Court judgement dated 29-01-2016 in WCP(c)527/2011, nurses who are working in private hospitals in Delhi must get their salary according to the Bed Status, the salary bracket made by the Court which should have been implemented:

 

  1. In case of less than 200 bedded hospitals, salary given to private nurses must be at par with salaries of State Government Nurses.
  1. In case of less than 100 bedded hospitals, salary given to private nurses should be 10% less than that of State Government Nurses.
  1. In case of 50-100 bedded hospitals, the salary must be 25% less than that of State Government Nurses.
  1. In case of 50 bedded hospitals, salary cannot be less than ?20,000/- pm.

 

The basic dignity that comes with every profession has often been denied to these nurses. Hence, the verdict also guarantees working conditions and benefits granted to state government nurses, to be implemented to private working nurses. Essential requirements like leaves, working hours, medical facilities, transportation, and even maternity leaves are denied.

We all know about justice delayed is justice denied, however in this case, the verdict came in 2016, and it is the end of 2019 now and that verdict hasn’t been implemented yet, their right to seek redressal has been blatantly ignored in broad day light. What’s worse is that the CM’s office and Delhi Government are still not listening to them and are not even ready for a dialogue.

The first medical personnel provided to the patients are nurses. If the country treats them like this, the future of healthcare remains uncertain.

Currently, in their generosity, they finish their shifts at these hospitals and then protest at Jantar Mantar to not jeopardise their patients. From 15th November, they have been on a hunger strike, after completing their hectic shifts. However, the situation has worsened so much that they are forced to resort to a full protest, leaving patients hanging at Jantar Mantar on 10th December.

A crisis that affects all of us hasn’t received single media coverage yet. Healthcare is the building block of our society, yet it is being treated in pure abeyance. More than that, what is being expected of these nurses is inhumane; dignity that comes with each profession is a constitutional right. While the mainstream media is more interested in covering communal politics, issue that directly affects our progression as a society doesn’t even surface.

 

Featured Image Credits: Newsd

 

Chhavi bahmba 

[email protected]

 

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DUB Speak

JNU Protest Continues Despite Partial Rollback of Fee Hike

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The protest against hostel fee hike and draconian hostel rules in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has entered its second week.

On Wednesday, 13th November, the hostel fee hike was rolled back partially during the Executive Council (EC) meeting. The decision was announced through a tweet by R Subrahmanyam, Education Secretary, Government of India, which was later retweeted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Screenshot_20191114-185810

According to the revised structure, the single room rent has been revised to Rs 200 per month, while the double bed rent has been revised to Rs 100 per month. The outrage surrounding the new manual emerged as the single room rent of Rs 20 per month was increased to Rs 600 per month whereas, double room rent was increased from Rs 10 per month to Rs 300 per month. However, the one-time mess security remains at Rs 5,500, the service charges remain at 1,700 per month along with the earlier utility charges. Moreover, Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students would receive assistance.

The Executive Council (EC) is the supreme decision-making body of the Varsity, which also has representatives from the JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA). The venue for the EC meeting was changed on Wednesday without prior information to the Students’ Union and the JNUTA. DK Lobiyal, JNUTA president quoted to PTI, “The meeting was supposed to be held at the Convention Centre inside the campus but when three EC members, professor Sachidanand Sinha, Moushumi Basu, and Baviskar Sharad Prahlad reached the venue, there was no meeting there.”

JNU students won’t call off the protest any time soon; if the draft manual is approved, it will be implemented soon. 14th November was observed as National Protest Day, wherein JNUTA along with DUTA, Federation of Central Universities’ Teachers’ Associations (FEDCUTA) and several student bodies rallied to save public-funded education in India, from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar.

Among the discontentment against the administration, activist and former JNU student, Umar Khalid spoke to The Quint, “The government and the JNU Vice Chancellor, Jagadesh Kumar, is giving the matter another twist. First, they said that the economically weaker sections will be aided by the administration, later the administration has come out with a press release stating that Below Poverty Line (BPL) students will be given concessions in the fee structure.” He further questioned the Government and media’s stance in propagating lies.

JNUSU’s former President Sai Balaji acknowledged the curfew and dress codes withdrawal, and said, “The government has played a cruel joke on the marginalised sections of students today.”  The JNU administration contested that the Varsity has not increased the fee for the past 19 years, regarding which JNUSU demanded a discussion before the proposed hike. The protest for the same continues.

Featured Image Credits: Noihrit Gogoi for DU Beat

Anandi Sen

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News

Deconstructing the Aarey Movement for the Delhi Youth

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A breakdown of the Aarey Forest conservation movement of Mumbai, in light of the current global climate crisis.

The Aarey Colony protests began on 5th October 2019, after the Bombay High Court (HC) allowed the Mumbai Metro to
cut nearly 2,500 trees to build a car shed for the new Mumbai Metro constructions in the vicinity. The HC’s move was in line with
a fine technicality that the Aarey Forest was not really a forest after all, but it was merely an urban cluster and hence it could
be felled for the purpose of establishing the Metro infrastructure. This move was met with severe backlash, as Mumbaikars
and green activists around the country opposed the felling of 2,500 trees that gave the much-needed respite from pollution
and heat to the residents of the colony.

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) began to cut down trees in the area merely hours after the HC order, at odd hours of night in another move that faced resistance from citizens and environmental activists. The Mumbai police arrested close to 29 people on the charges of allegedly obstructing and assaulting police personnel at this protest. Many people, including several celebrities, took to social media to express their support with the activists protesting in the Aarey Colony. After these events, a special hearing on the matter was scheduled with the Supreme Court (SC) and, as a result, Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was implemented in Aarey Colony. Although lifted for the hearing, the section was later reimposed after the hearing.

The Apex Court, this past week, restrained authorities from cutting any more trees in Mumbai’s Aarey. A special bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Ashok Bhushan said that it would have to examine the entire matter closely, and it extended the date of the next hearing to 21st October, which would take place before its forest bench. The court also ordered the Mumbai Police to release all the activists who were arrested in the past two days.

The SC recorded an undertaking by the Maharashtra State Government, where it was assured that no more trees would be felled in Aarey. The SC observed that “…it appears that Aarey was some kind of forest at some time,” taking note of the 2012 Management Plan for the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which describes Aarey as an unclassified forest.

The Court further lashed at the Maharashtra State Government,  “Tell us how many saplings you planted? How have they grown? What’s the status of your forests?” The Apex Court’s question came after the Mumbai Metro claimed that it had planted around 24,000 saplings to replace the trees it had cut in Aarey. The court asked the state authorities to also produce a mandatory afforestation report.

Rishav Ranjan — the law student whose letter to the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, was converted into a suo motu writ petition for the matter — has requested MMRCL Managing Director, Ashwini Bhide, to desist from any construction work in the area until the next SC hearing on 21st October.

Complex climate change situations necessitate nuanced interventions. However, for the most part, India has resorted to afforestation without consulting local communities or conducting serious impact assessment studies. In light of the latest global climate crisis, a Global Climate Risk Index released at the Katowice summit in Katowice, Poland, in 2018 showed that intense cyclones, excessive rainfall, and severe floods could make India and its neighbours among the worst affected countries in the world. This leads to the conclusion that afforestation is not enough. The
effects of climate change in tandem with the development agenda require a two-pronged, well-researched, and balanced
approach that needs to be initiated by the governments at grass-root levels.

Featured Image Credits: India Times

Bhavya Pandey
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Arts Faculty

The Left Protests as Article 35A, 370 are Scrapped

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The lanes near Jantar Mantar and Parliament Street flooded with protestors as the Centre issued the news of the abrogation of Article 35A, and Article 370 which granted a special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

This morning, Home Minister Amit Shah announced in the Rajya Sabha, that Article 35A, and Article 370 which grants the state of Jammu & Kashmir special status are to be abrogated.
As the hours went on, the bill was passed.

The move leaves Jammu and Kashmir as a union territory with its own legislature. Ladakh would also be a union territory, but without its own assembly.

Since 4th August, Kashmir has been under lockdown with a complete shutdown of internet, broadband, and cellular services. Many Kashmiris across the world have said their indefinite goodbyes to their loved ones, unaware of when the ban would be lifted. Fear, anxiety, and paranoia have gripped the valley as news of deployment of thousands of paramilitary forces spreads out. Tourists and pilgrims have been asked to leave the state immediately, in the face of intelligence reports alleging a terror threat.

On 5th August, as the news of abrogation spread like wildfire throughout the University, student organisations took it upon themselves to celebrate, and resist.

As the ABVP celebrated the move near Arts Faculty with sweets and dhol, Left-leaning parties like the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and All India Students’ Association (AISA) gathered around Jantar Mantar to protest against the move. The impromptu protest which was organised within two hours saw hundreds of gatherers with placards, demanding that the Articles be reinstated.
A Kashmiri student who requested to stay anonymous said, “I’m speechless, I don’t know what else to say.”

The protest also saw prominent leaders of the CPI (M), like Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat. As cries of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ echoed through the Parliament Street, the protesters burnt an effigy in an attempt to defame the Modi government. 

“I was thinking that this might happen since it was a part of the BJP’s manifesto, but deep down, I didn’t want it to happen. It’s only about the territory now, not the people,” said Hayder, a student. 

Due to the communication blackout, students have been unable to reach out to their loved ones. Almost every Kashmiri student remembers the exact time they last reached out to their family.

Residents of Kashmir are yet to find out about the abrogation. 

Speaking to DU Beat, Dipankar Bhattacharya, the General Secretary of CPI (ML) called the move as a ‘constitutional coup’ and ‘a complete travesty of truth and justice’. “I think this is a warning to every Indian of the shape of things to come, and these things are coming conspitarioly, but are coming rather fast. This is an adventurous way of governing. This is a recipe for disaster. It’s a time-bomb ticking away for the rest of India. Just because it was a part of the BJP manifesto and that they won the popular mandate doesn’t mean that the whole of India supports this move,” added Bhattacharya.

Ehthemam, a student of Jamia Milia Islamia called the move ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘illegal’. “The army and state repression has been high in Kashmir, with the cellular and internet shutdowns, it only increases the paranoia over human rights violations in the valley. They want control of Kashmir’s resources which is why they choose to abrogate Articles 35A and Article 370. The abrogation is impractical and will only worsen the conflict.”

Kawalpreet Kaur, the president of AISA, Delhi State added “This is illegal and should be challenged in court. This protest showed us that people aren’t happy with what happened today.”

Kaur declared that the resistance would carry on in the form of another protest march on the 7th of August, from Mandi House to Parliament Street. 

“The curfew will be lifted some day, people will come to know, how long will you repress us for? What happened today was unconstitutional,” said a Kashmiri woman addressing the gathering.

Home Minister Amit Shah has assured the opposition in the Rajya Sabha: full statehood at ‘appropriate time’ after ‘normalcy’ returns.
But for a state which has been militarized for decades, what is defined as ‘normal’? Amidst internet shutdowns and pellet guns, where does the Kashmiri identity go?

Feature Image Credits: Jaishree Kumar for DU Beat

Jaishree Kumar

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Admissions

Mission Admission: A Tough Bargain

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The continuing problems related to admissions in the varsity have raised several questions on the functionality of the administration.

Student organisations Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) of the University of Delhi (DU) have voiced their concerns and demonstrated against the DU Vice Chancellor regarding the difficulties faced by students during the time of admissions. The demonstation also sought to question the fee hike that has taken place for almost all courses in the University.

ABVP has voiced the concerns of the students by protesting at the Arts Faculty, addressing various issues related to admissions. The increment in college fees has been challenged along with irregularity in Sports Category admissions. Provision of admission by accepting undertaking, and introduction of EWS category in M. Phil/ PhD admissions has been requested. Importantly, inadequate arrangement in colleges for parents at the time of the admission process are some of the issues amongst other key issues that have been raised by the ABVP.

They (ABVP) has brought into the limelight how the admission staff in colleges who were admitting students to the first cut-off were not aware of the rules prescribed by the University. This caused problems in the smooth functioning during the admissions process. Admissions of students were also cancelled due to loopholes in the admission process.

Siddharth Yadav, the State Secretary of ABVP Delhi, said that if the demands are not met within the time period of ten days, then there will be more resolute protests against the administration.

DUSU President Shakti Singh also highlighted the issue of fee hike by saying, “There has been an arbitrary unaccounted fee increase in many DU colleges.” The issue Ramjas College’s fee hike has been previously reported on by DU Beat.

A memorandum to the Dean of Students Welfare had been submitted after the protest ended by the the ABVP delegation.

Attempts have been made by the student organisations so that the DU admission process does not become tedious and burdensome for the students. The true effects of the protests remain to be seen.

Feature Image Credits: Prateek Pankaj for DU Beat

Amrashree Mishra

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Campus Central

Year end: Protests that shook DU this academic year

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Delhi University has an active atmosphere of protests almost every other week or month. Hence, protests have almost become a part of DU life! Here’s a throwback at some impactful protests that shook DU.
Library Union
Deriving from a letter to the VC (Vice Chancellor) the Delhi University and Colleges Library Employees Association (DUCLEA) protested early in August to initiate the implementation of the Recruitment Rules Review Committee Rules and the ACP/MACP Pay Scale Committee Report. A lot of other demands like removal of library attendance system from college libraries were also raised. However, the familiar stalling of rightful demands has led to the stagnation of the report for over 18 (now 26) months.
year end 1Featured Image Credits: Namrata Randhawa for DU Beat
DSJ 
Constantly headlining the campus news flash, Delhi School.of Journalism has seen one of its most charged years given to resistance, as yet. The struggles of DSJ students to attain a reasonable quality of education by requesting the concerned authorities to justify the hefty fees were multiple but in vain; ineffective due to  delay in “administrative/authoritative approval”. A month later in September, 2018, inability to fulfill the previously promised valid concerns of the students led to another round of suspension of classes and oppression of the crusaders protesting in the DSJ campus.
year end 2
Feature Image Credits: Neerav
Young India Adhikar March (YIAM)
Inspired by the Kisan Mukti March, this march saw students from all over the country marching from the Red Fort to Parliament Street on the 7th of February.
year end 3Featured Image Credits: Jaishree Kumar for DU Beat
People’s March
Barely a fortnight after YIAM, students, teachers and unions marched in solidarity from Mandi house to Parliament Street to protect public higher funded education. The march was led by Delhi University Teachers’ Union (DUTA) along with various other organisations.
year end 4Featured Image Credits: Adithya Khanna for DU Beat
V-Tree Protests at Hindu College 
On 14 February, massive protests erupted in an attempt to disrupt, if not stop, the annual ‘Virgin Tree pooja’ tradition of Hindu College. Members of Pinjra Tod, SFI and Hindu College Progressive Front jointly protested and clashed against supporters of the pooja, mainly students of the Boys’ Hostel. The protests, widely covered by the media, had led to a few scuffles.
year end 5Featured Image Credits- Prateek Pankaj for DU Beat
Mathematics Department Protests 
Mass failures in the examinations for MSc Mathematics had rocked the department. They received their results on 8 February and had started protesting on 14 February. The protesters demanded to be shown copies of the answer sheets along with an independent investigation, among other things. Various other departments in addition to the Mathematics Department and organisations like AISA, SFI, KYS, and DSU joined the protests.
year end 6Featured Image Credits- Anoushka Sharma for DU Beat
DRC hostel protests
On the 23rd of February, protests broke out at the hostel gate of Daulat Ram College after mishaps at the college hostel and the rampant culture of hatred and sexism. The protesters demanded basic rights which were being violated by the DRC hostel board.  The fight continued on to the next day, the 24th, when residents marched from their hostel gate towards the Vice Chancellor’s office and staged a sit down.
year end 7
Featured Image Credits- Pragati Thapa for DU Beat
DUTA Protests 
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association had carried out sustained protests since the beginning of the year and even before that, against issues like the 13 point roster system, privatisation and the needs of ad-hoc teachers. Human chains, candlelight marches, ‘total strikes’ and a ‘Bharat Bandh’ were few of the measures adopted by the association and its supporters. The protests succeeded in bringing an ordinance by the government on 8 March to restore the old 200 point roster system.
year end 8
Featured Image Credits-  DU Beat Archives

Cover Image Credits- Pragati Thapa for DU Beat

 

Kartik Chauhan

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Jaishree Kumar

 

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Around the Campus

A Jab to the Punjabi Department

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An account on how the poems of a Punjabi Leftist poet sparked up a chain of protests in the University’s Punjabi Department.

“We fought for very basic democratic rights which we think must be provided to the students of a public institution like Delhi University.” Those are straightforward and to-the-point lines from Rajveer Kaur, the president of the student body, Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch (BSCEM). It has been a tumultuous time recently for Rajveer and her peers at the organisation getting involved in gheraos, hunger strikes and, tussles against the administration. What prompted all this? For this, we will have to rewind to a few months back.
It was in March when the first signs of trouble began showing. Rajveer, who also happens to be an MPhil scholar in the Punjabi Department of the University of Delhi, had to make a statement on behalf of her organisation and stuck a magazine at a wall and notice board; a work containing the poetry of noted Punjabi poet Avtar Singh Pash and ideas of India’s celebrated martyr Bhagat Singh. For the unacquainted, Pash was a wordsmith known for his strongly Leftist views which he expressed in his works. This angered the Head of Department who ordered this ‘revolutionary’ paraphernalia to be taken down instantly. Rajveer’s act won her a trip to the HoD’s office along with an unwanted complimentary threat of being rusticated if she ever indulged in any such act again. And to top it all, she along with her colleague Manpreet, was detained in the upcoming examination. This is from where the first hunger strike began.
From this personal prejudice rose some personal demands like setting up a committee to look into the biasness towards Rajveer and Manpreet, and some department demands as well such as improvement of basic infrastructural facilities in the Department and to keep all official notices and syllabi in the Punjabi vernacular. It was also asked for the Head of Department to apologise for her behaviour. To compel the administration to accept all the demands, the student organisation took to protesting. Subsequently in a response, the authorities would agree to all the conditions, but only to deny all of it later.  And like (almost) every time, the administration agreed to these demands and later denied them.
The heat increased and in these cold months, more gheraos around the administration’s office and a four-day hunger strike (from 24th to 29th November) took place. “The administration tried to break the students’ unity through various repressive methods like even denying the mats and blankets for our night stay. Still we were adamant that unless all our demands are met, we won’t give up.”, Rajveer adds.
As of today, the HoD called a meeting for the MPhil committee at noon. The result of this was holding a re-examination in January, for the paper in which Rajveer got detained. It was also declared that the department would act in the matter of making signboards and official notes in Punjabi and changing the HoD for Manpreet. Although, the BSCEM is celebrating at the moment looking at today as a victory, would the Punjabi Department actually live by its words? That is what will be seen in the coming days.

 

Feature Image Credits: Shiraz Hussain

Shaurya Singh Thapa 

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A Fresh Wave of Protests at Delhi School of Journalism

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A couple of days back, the administration of the University of Delhi (DU) speculated the establishment of nine institutions which would impart specialised courses. However, the student community claims that before opening new institutions, the government must look at the infrastructural issues that the recently opened institute, the Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ), has been facing ever since its inception last year.

Located in the University Stadium Campus, the college has been at the locus of violent student agitations. The major cause of resentment amongst the student fraternity is the alleged lack of infrastructure that the administration had promised them. The institute, belonging to the self-financing genre, charges exorbitant sums of money as tuition fee from the students with amounts reaching well beyond INR 65,000. The pupils allege that even after paying such stupendous sums of money, they’re not being provided the infrastructure that had been promised to them. Following this, an agitation had broken out in the last week of August 2018, wherein the students had reportedly remained on a strike against the administration for two days, and it was alleged that the students had been locked inside the campus during the night hours.

The management at the Delhi School of Journalism had also suspended 8 students in this connection, which was then revoked in response to the withdrawal of the students from the protests. This reportedly came subsequent to the intervention of the OSD and the VC. Only after the student community was assured that a concrete solution shall be found to the problem, the protests were called off.

The administration, however, seems to have had put the case aside once the agitations were over. The DSJ student body alleges that the Vice Chancellor neither met with the student body nor addressed their issues. Fresh protests in order to have the demands met, however, broke out in DSJ on 18th September 2018. The furious student fraternity stood as a united front against the administration. It is said that a meeting held with the Proctor on 14th September 2018 turned out to be a conduit of dispute and agitation. Allegedly, the Proctor shook her hands off the earlier promise, stating that she can’t promise the redressing of even a single of the demands on the student manifesto, be it the construction of a library, construction of a hostel, or even the Media Lab which is considered ‘food’ for students pursuing journalism.

The students claim that they find the college area too cluttered. They add that in the absence of a library, it becomes tough for them to access adequate resource material pertaining to their discipline, and the absence of a reading room in the already cluttered campus makes it difficult for the students to engage in any productive self-study at the college.

The situation, however, took a different route altogether, when, during the newly erupted volcano of protests, a second-year student and agitator, Ambuj Bharedwaj, was arrested by the Delhi Police, which had been called in by the DSJ administration to curb the protests. It is claimed that the student was dragged by his neck openly in the college by the policemen and was brutally thrashed by the police while in custody. The students feel that the management is adopting the use of force and physical penuries to curb their right to something they have already paid for in full. Thus, according to the student fraternity, their upsurge wasn’t trampled upon by the false promises made on the management’s end. In fact, it gained a new impetus because of the use of police force. Hence, the students have decided to remain in DSJ’s campus through the night on protests, with eyes looking desperately for a solution to their problem.

DU Beat tried reaching out to the administration at the Delhi School of Journalism, but that didn’t prove feasible. Hence, their take on the matter shall be updated here as and when it is procured.

With inputs from students at DSJ.

Feature Image Credits: Rishabh Gogoi for DU Beat

Aashish Jain

[email protected]

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