Ramjas College Archives - Page 5 of 5 - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

A group of twelve students and five professors from the University of Delhi attended the 10^th South Asian Economics Students Meet (SAESM) held at Lahore, Pakistan from 23^rd to 30^th 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 10^th 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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The principal of Ramjas College would have breathed a huge sigh of relief when every subsequent revelation pertaining to the fake admission scam left him unscathed. However, one shouldn’t suffer with a guilty conscience for long and therefore the principal has joined the ranks of the co-accused. Naresh Tau, admission scam mastermind spilt the beans when he told the police that he gave Rs 80,000 and a bottle of Johnnie Walker to ensure the fake admissions met with no resistance from within the college, to college principal Rajendra Prasad. Although the Principal has denied allegations, he has been charge sheeted in the case filed before the Tis Hazari Court.

Delhi Police believes that in the last two years 36 students have gained admission in the college using forged mark sheets. As a result, 28 charge sheets have been filed wherein several admission committee members of the college have been named as suspects including the convener PK Malhotra along with the “dealing assistants” who handled the admissions in the absence of the teaching staff. The police have identified discrepancies and “mistakes” which would be more compatible with a fixed cricket match. Shockingly, the admission committee overlooked conspicuous misprints in the mark sheets. What is amazing to note is the fact that the staff signed on admission forms backed by mark sheets that had misspelt ‘ninety’. Hence it is apt that a charge sheet says, “It seems that staff of the admission committee has benefitted the accused knowingly.”

As far as the Principal is concerned however, the charge sheet indicting him also mentions “no evidence yet” on his role in the scam. The scamsters, including several former and current Ramjas students, charged exorbitant amounts from students ranging from 1 to 6 lakhs to forge their mark sheets.

It seems as if the admission sham is getting murkier by the minute with skeletons tumbling out of the closet as every revelation comes along. What remains to be seen is whether the Principal manages to clear his name once this shameful affair is over and done with.

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