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The row started with students being outraged after the panel allegedly attacked meat-eaters, using derogatory phrases like ‘they deserve to be beaten up’ and ‘them and their families will get cancer’.

 

Lady Shri Ram College (LSR), in collaboration with their National Service Scheme (NSS), had organized a seminar V4V (Valentine’s for the Voiceless), which led to a feeling of collective anger amongst the students because the talk was allegedly against the meat eating cultural minorities – the Muslims and the Dalits.

The panel consisted of Ambika Shukla, Director, Sanjay Gandhi Animal Care Centre, Devika Srimal Bapna, founder Kanabis- a PETA approved vegan footwear for women, and Divya Parthasarthy, founder, Tails of Compassion, shelter home for animals. The event was to be centered around the theme ‘Culture and Cruelty’.

Post the event, some students of LSR exhibited their strong displeasure as Shukla used words like ‘thrashing up’ and ‘bashing’ to describe what should be done to people who ferry cows and cattle for slaughter. According to the student(s), Shukla said, to quote, “How fashionable it is for media to report on Muslim and Dalit lynching, with respect to the beef ban, but no one talks about the gau-rakshaks giving up their lives for cows.” The debate ostensibly morphed into a karmic issue wherein Shukla said, “unko cancer hoga, unki family mai cancer phailega’”(they will have cancer, which will spread to their families as well) while talking about the non-vegetarians.

“I have never felt so attacked, offended and unsafe at my own college’s event,” was a student’s concern, who wished to remain anonymous. “It is an absolutely flawed understanding of more complex and layered issues,” said another.

There is also the concern of this issue not being taken as gravely as it should. “Either they (the people who are hushing-up the incident) are from NSS, and are insecure about their reputation, or they are really ignorant and fail to see how meat eating is a choice influenced by various demographics,” was a student’s take on the matter. “They might also be scared, considering what the present admin’s attitude is towards dissent.”

The NSS’s side of the story is quite contradictory wherein the say that the way tthe opinion was voiced was hurtful and disrespectful, and they have asked the students of the University of Delhi and outside to ignore the post. They said that the panelists have been misquoted, and the talk hasn’t been represented in a rational and factual manner.

‘On the bright side, I am glad the panel achieved what it sought to achieve,’ read a text from a volunteer. ‘It made people aware of the cruelty towards animals, and induced thinking.’

When the issue of the NSS’s image being maligned came up, they said that they did not, in fact, control what the panelists go on to say. The post has been reduced to a ‘hate message’ by the organisers.

‘Overall, the session reeked of privilege, both caste and class. They discarded food choices as an idea altogether,’ read a text that was circulated soon after. “It is just that a lot of us really felt insecure listening to a person justifying lynching people in the name of protecting a cow. And making this a white versus black debate portraying non-vegetarians as essentially bad is disrespecting the freedom to choose that all of us have,” an LSR student said.

NSS Union and concerned authorities have not released an official statement as of yet. The report will be updated once the Union comments.

What really happened is still in a shaded area because it was not reported by an external organisation, and there, still, seems to exist a dispute between the parties.

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

 

 

Maumil Mehraj

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In a letter addressed to the Director of Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ), University of Delhi (DU), students are reportedly demanding a written apology from the administration because of an allegedly unauthorised seminar which was organised in room number G6 of the DSJ campus on the 13th of September 2018. Dr. Kaushal Kant Mishra and two other speakers were present during the seminar.

As claimed by Prashant Yadav, a second-year student at the Delhi School of Journalism, people present at the seminar spoke against the Dalits in a deeply problematic way. Yadav claims that this is all a conspiracy against the anti-corruption agitation taking place at DSJ and further says that the authorities have tried their best to divide the students on the basis of caste and religion. “The organiers of the seminar run provocative social media pages and work against the unity and integrity of the country”, says Prashant. “The information about the event was posted on Facebook. The students tried to contact the OSD (Officer on Special Duty) who proved to be unavailable. After repeated attempts to contact her, the officer was informed about the event. However, she took no action to stop it. Instead, she asked the security men to chase the students out”, he continues.

However Shubham Sharma, one of the organisers who is also a second-year student at Delhi School of Journalism, claims that it was not even a seminar and that it was just an unofficial meeting. The administration wasn’t aware of this. “No such derogatory remarks were made. We are being accused falsely. We even have recordings of the entire event to prove our claim. We didn’t say anything against Dalits. In fact, the topics were on how casteism leads to anti-nationalism and how representatives in the Parliament refuse to even acknowledge caste as an issue”, says Shubham.

Feature Image Credits: India Today

Disha Saxena

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A seminar on ‘Urban Naxalism- The Invisible Enemy’ was conducted in  Hansraj College on 24th August by ‘Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA)’. The seminar was attended by  500 people in a packed auditorium.  It had filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri as the chief speaker, ABVP national organising secretary Sunil Ambedkar as chief guest, and Supreme Court advocate Monika Arora as keynote speaker.

The seminar started with a choir singing ‘Vande Mataram’ and the ceremonial lamp lighting by the guests. A representative of GIA highlighted the motto and the achievements of GIA since its inception.

Mr. Abhijit Majumdar, the editor of Mynation.com, demanded that textbooks should start calling Mao as a mass murderer. He stressed that there should be revamping of education system and reclamation of space to set the right kind of narratives. He criticized Dr. GN Saibaba for his links with Maoists.

Advocate Monica Arora, the convener of GIA was the next speaker in the lineup. She condemned the events at the JNU campus on the night of 9th February. She discussed the poster of the same night. “Ek zor lagana hai, inko poora nikaalne keliye… Kerala, media aur JNU mein hi toh baaki hain (We need to use force to throw them out…Rest are in Kerala, media, and JNU),” she said.

“Whatever happened in JNU in 2016 was problematic but one good thing happened — it exposed people with communist ideology hidden within the film industry, journalism, and universities. They had been working as sleeper cells” said Mr. Sunil Ambekar.

Dr. A K Bhagi, President of the National Democratic Teachers Front in DU highlighted the cases where Naxalism has been included in the curriculum as social movements.

“Islamist fundamentalist forces in the west and the communist forces in the east are trying to break India. After Independence, the minds of Indians have been colonised strategically”, said the chief speaker at the event, Mr. Agnihotri. He categorically highlighted that the idea of an empowered woman has been largely skewed by the left intelligentsia. He pressed that India will emerge as a superpower despite several challenges.

One thing that didn’t go down well with the students was the act of not taking questions at the end of the seminar. Students were not given a chance to engage with the panelists.

Mrs. Arora, who is the convenor of GIA, while talking to the DU Beat correspondent, highlighted the need of organising such seminars. She informed that GIA wishes to emerge as a questioning sane voice in a charged socio-political atmosphere.

The seminar drew its curtain with National Anthem being sung by the audience together which was followed by high tea.

Sandeep Samal
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SPADE, the socio economic society of Shivaji College, University of Delhi, organised a Policy Dialogue session on the topic “Economic Freedom and Liberalism” in association with Centre for Civil Society on 26th October 2017. The seminar covered various aspects of liberalisation and economic freedom and a different perspective was kept forward.

People attending the event
People attending the event

The session started with Mr. Mitra introducing a quiz, an exercise that tests the political inclination of a person. He then explained the concept of economic freedom and brought to notice the events of 1991 where the Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation policy was introduced.

He talked about the global economic freedom levels where India ranks at 95 and how the lack of political stability affects the freedom levels. He drew out different parameters that affect the economic freedom of a country such as the protection of civil rights and political rights, the ease of doing business, world Competitive Index, Global Hunger and Press Freedom. Stating “Democracy is not a majority rule, it is the right to respect and protect those in the minority, it is a process, a negative feedback check” he explained how India has come down from being a full democracy to a flawed democracy.

Talking about liberalism he mentioned about the Right to choose and Right to Property and how it has a deep impact on the global Liberalisation. He emphasized drawing the relationship between the Right to Property and the historic disputes stating “75% of civil court cases are property disputes”. The event marked a great success for the society.

Cascade, the national seminar of the Commerce Department, Gargi College gets bigger and
better every year. Cascade 2016-17 themed ‘Fintech: A Renaissance in Finance’, was in
conjunction with the Golden Jubilee celebration of Gargi College. It was graced by four eminent
speakers; Professor Raj S. Dhankar, Vice Chancellor, Ansal University, Professor I.M. Pandey,
Director General, Delhi School of Business, Ms. Neha Punater, Managing Partner, KPMG and
Mr. Gaurav Kachru, CEO, Today Retails, India Today Group. The speakers took the floor and
drew the audience’s attention on the paradigm shift in transacting finance in 2016, throwing light
on how fintech has opened doors to a bevy of startups which are exploring its opportunities
amid certain challenges, in the Indian economy.
The seminar was followed by an interactive
session where students and faculty interacted with the speakers. Added to this, we received
about 600 registrations, and participation from all over NCR. Students from Delhi University
enthusiastically participated in the competitions held like, B-Prompt, Mock Stock, Minting Money
and QFiesta. An overwhelming appreciation was showered from the contingent teams of the
participating students in their feedback for the high level of competitions chosen in Cascade.
Best Winning Contingent was Finergy from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies. All
things considered, Cascade 2016-17 was a success through and throug

Indraprastha College for Women, known for its distinguished presence as a women’s educational institution, marked the Golden Jubilee of its Department of Political Science and organised a National Conference on 15th-16th September, 2016, for the same.

The two-day long Conference, themed around Women, State and Power: Reflections on Democracy witnessed several eminent Speakers. The Chief Guest, Ms. Lalitha Kumaramangalam, Chairperson of National Commission for Women, New Delhi, along with the Guest of Honour, Ms. Indu Agnihotri, Director and Professor at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies, New Delhi, directed the course of the conference in their opening address. Ms. Kumaramangalam, through her speech, encouraged the young audience to think before accepting the deeply ingrained practices of the patriarchal society. Ms Agnihotri further explained the  significance of keeping the movement for women’s rights alive in all phases despite the challenges the society poses. 

The Principal, Dr. Saraf, welcomed one of the founder members of the department, Dr. Sushil Bharadwaj, as a special guest for the Conference. The first session witnessed Prof. Mary. E. John as the Chair, and Dr. Jagmati Sangwan and Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Singh as speakers. The theme for the first session, State and the Institutions of Democratisation, was discussed with special reference to honour killings and electoral politics. 

The first Speaker, Jagwati Sangwan, the National General Secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association, is a name synonymous with Women’s Rights in the State of Haryana. She shared her knowledge and experiences on honour killings’ victims and the State’s response. Professor Ujjwal Kumar Singh, the former Head of the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, spoke about the State, Democracy and Legitimacy in India and presented some eye opening realities to the audience. With startling facts, he left the audience wondering about the nature and the current status of the State.

The second session, chaired by Dr. Babli Moitra Saraf ,themed at Politics of Culture and Identity, hosted Prof. Mary John, Professor and Senior Fellow at CWDS, Delhi, and Prof. Madhu Kishwar from the CSDS as speakers. Prof. John talked about the participation of women in electoral politics, and framed a trajectory of the ups and downs the movement has gone through. Prof. Kishwar, on the other hand, elaborated on the multilevel nature of identities.

The Conference opened on the second day with three eminent speakers having expertise on topics that concern women inadvertently. Chaired by Dr. Anupama Roy, the panelists, Dr. Madhulika Banerjee, Prof. Nandini Sundar and Ms. Aparna Moitra discussed about gender perspective in development and ecology. The first Speaker, Dr. Banerjee, talked about gender, knowledge and medicine – its recipe and formulation- and the role of the state in the same. The second speaker, Prof. Nandini, then enlightened the audience about the problems faced by women due to changes in their environment, encompassing every definition of change – from climatic to social change. The third speaker, interestingly, presented to the audience the case of Henvalvani Community Radio, Uttarakhand, and reflected upon hill women’s perceptions and articulations about climatic change.

The concluding sessions of the conference took a completely different turn, when real life fighters shared their stories of struggle and violence. Under the theme, State and Structures of Violence, founder of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, Ms. Parveena Ahanger and acid attack survivor, Ms. Laxmi shared their survival stories. This being the most emotionally charged sessions of the conference evoked many opinions, questions and condolences, from the audience’s side.

Image credits: Nilakshi Basumatary and Asmita Jagwani
Image credits: Nilakshi Basumatary and Asmita Jagwani

The celebration ended with the College Principal’s words of wisdom, along with cultural performances such as a dance recital on Draupadi by Gargi Goswami, and a play titled Mooch Neech Ka Papda, by the college’s dramatics society, Abhivyakti. The play, showcasing gendered stereotypes, was received by a huge round of applause by the audience. With this, the 2-days long National Conference commemorating 50 years of the Political Science department closed with countless ideas and questions to ponder upon.

Featured Image Credits: Nilakshi Basumatary and Asmita Jagwani, Dept. of Political Science, IPCW

Priyal Mahtta

 

 

The department of English and the English literary society of Dyal Singh College (Morning) organised their annual English seminar on the topic – “Early European nationalisms and their postcolonial manifestations: literary explorations” on April 4 and 5, 2016.

Day 1 of the seminar began with the introduction of the theme, followed by the first session in which the first lecture was on “Tudor historiography and nation state in early modern England” by Mr. Rudrashish Chakrabarty, an assistant professor in the English department of Kirori Mal College. The lecture focused on how nationalism was not just a 19th century phenomenon in Europe but was also seen during the Tudor Dynasty rule. The second lecture on the topic of nationalism and internationalism by Mr Tanvir Aeijaz, an associate professor from the Political Science department of Ramjas College, took the discussion on nationalism and nation-state forward.

The second and the third sessions consisted of paper presentations on various topics.

The first session on the second day of the seminar began with a lecture on “Rabindranath Tagore and a critique of Indian nationalism”. The lecture was quite engaging with its critique on the nationalism of sloganeering, and how such nationalism makes the nation state more important than its people. This was followed by a lecture on the topic “Stated absolute, absolute state: Hegel’s philosophy and the cult of the state” by Dr Manish Sharma, associate professor of English and Philosophy, BML Munjal University. The last lecture of the session was on Latin American nationalisms by Professor Vibha Maurya from the Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Delhi.

There were several paper presentations in the second session, followed by a discussion on the Syrian migration crisis, the absence and marginalisation of ‘queer’ in literature, and the caste – based reservation system.

“It was an extremely enriching seminar for both the teachers and the students. The idea behind organising such a seminar is to provide students with fresh perspectives and new ideas that go beyond the prescribed syllabus, and yet help their course work as well. All the speakers contributed to this process immensely and we are extremely grateful to them for having delivered such thought – provoking lectures. We would like to continue this tradition in the coming years as well,” said Dr. Yamini, an assistant professor from the Department of English of Dyal Singh College.

Image Credits: The Facebook page of the Department of English, Dyal Singh College (M)

Nidhi Panchal

[email protected]

IMG-20150922-WA0027 A talk on Resume Building followed, where students were given information about having an impressive resume, developing confidence and facing interviews. Then, an interactive Campus to Corporate session by the alumni took place. Lastly, an innovative presentation on ‘Real time application of mathematics’ was displayed to the students. The event will continue tomorrow, with math oriented events like Sudoku, Red letter Quiz, Faking the research, Mathematical tambola, Mathematical pictionary and Decoding the map. Image Credits- Uzma Rehman for DU Beat Lovleen Kaur [email protected]]]>

Vishleshan, the official discussion forum of Arthashastra, the Economics Society of Miranda House college hosted Dr. Reetika Khera, an eminent developmental economist and social activist, for their first seminar of the session, titled “Doles, Freebies, Handouts: A Right(s) Approach to Populism”, on 26th August.

Dr. Reetika Khera, associated with institutions like Delhi School of Economics, IIT-Delhi, Centre for Economic Development and the Planning Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute, was actively involved with the implementation of the National Rural Employment Generation Act (NREGA) scheme and champions the cause of social welfare schemes.

The Seminar was preceded by a short reading group, where students discussed Dr. Khera’s work and talked about relevant issues, like the situation of public welfare schemes in India-the benefits they provide to people on a daily basis versus the expenditure on them. At 1.30 p.m, Dr. Khera took the stage after being welcomed warmly by Ananya Goyal and Arushi Gupta, Co-Heads of Vishleshan.

During the course of the seminar, which lasted for around an hour, Dr. Khera successfully broke down the concept of social welfare schemes and put forth her stance of supporting their expansion and upkeep. She mentioned how there had been recent talks about India’s social welfare policies being too “populist” when in actuality, we are a “world champion in social underspending”. Dr. Khera broke down the stigma against social welfare schemes by tackling the often-repeated issues like how expenditure on them adds to the fiscal deficit and how India cannot afford to fund these schemes anymore. She took on another major issue against schemes like The Public Distribution System, which are thought to be riddled with corruption and hence inherently ineffective.

In reality, statistics show that there have been considerable improvements in the PDS, with states like Bihar seeing a turnaround in their effectiveness. Dr. Khera also criticised the use of obsolete data from 1997-2001 which have been cited by columnists of leading newspapers to speak out against NREGA and other such social welfare measures. She ended her lively session by stating, “It just takes political will and basic technological intervention to run welfare schemes”, which was followed by an interaction session where attendees commented on and brought forth other relevant observations.

“In our quest for stimulating discussion on matters of importance in Economics, I believe that we are on a good start with the lecture by Dr. Khera. Her passion for her work, particularly for raising standards of living across the board by constitution of Rights for Necessities was inspiring for the entire lot of young economists in the audience,” said Ananya Goyal, the Co-Head of Vishleshan.

For more updates on Vishleshan events, visit their Facebook Page here.

Image Credits: Niketa Singh, Arthashastra (The Economics Society of Miranda House)

Shubham Kaushik

[email protected]

On 17th January, the political science department of Delhi College of Arts & Commerce organised an informative seminar about different academic options offered at LSE to students globally. The guest lecturer was W.S Breare-Hall who is the Student Recruitment and Study Abroad Manager at LSE.

The seminar kicked off with introduction of London School of Economics which was established in 1895 by Beatrice and Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw and Graham Wallas. Mr. Hall illustrated LSE as an institution which strives to make a positive difference in the society by creative policy makers of tomorrow. He said, “People come to LSE not because who we are but because who we are. When you go home after your classes at LSE, you have a unique insight and far more exciting experiences, knowledge and skills.”

He described the procedure of selection programmes, scholarships, financial aids and accommodation facilities at London School of Economics. He went on to throw light on various graduate, undergraduate and general courses offered at LSE. On choice of degree at LSE he said, “When you are choosing a degree, look carefully. If it’s not according to your interests then it’s not right for you. Tailor the degree according to your interests.”

“Being the president of the department, I want to give my best to the students. In today’s world it’s essential to get global to understand the socio-cultural contest at the local level. The seminar was an attempt at this. We hope to keep having such informative seminars in the future too”, said Pooja, the president of Political Science Department of Delhi College of Arts & Commerce.

Mr.Hall concluded the event thanking the gathering,”It is I who must thank you for being such a welcoming and gracious host.I hope those present found my talk helpful and I would be delighted to visit you again in the future.”