While India is being proudly hailed across the world for celebrating democracy this election again, the much famed Delhi University (DU) which is considered to be one of the most acclaimed universities in India is facing protests for fettering students’ voices, and forcing undemocratic decisions on its students and teachers.
On April 7, the DU administration without giving notice to students and teachers sealed the Delhi University Students’ union (DUSU) office when its former joint secretary Raju Rawat smeared shoe polish on Umesh Rai’s (Director, south campus) face for having allegedly passed inflammatory remarks about BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Considering it as yet another strategy of the DU’s Vice Chancellor, Dinesh Singh, to curb the students’ voice, ABVP and DUSU has blamed the VC for taking sides with students belonging to Congress affiliated NSUI. They have criticized the dual standards of the DU administration for a false press release stating that the DUSU office was shifted not sealed, and that the VC did not inform any one, including the media, or formed any fact-finding committee after the incident. And they also blamed the administration for ignoring the law of the land, and implicating students on false grounds.
“Did the university form any committee after the incident of slapping of a teacher publicly in Law Faculty by the DUSU President last year (who belonged to the Congress affiliated NSUI)? No. It then took all steps to save him. We strongly condemn administration’s double standards,” said Aman Awana, DUSU President.
Saket Bahuguna, Delhi state secretary, ABVP said “All the students of the university should not get affected by the act of one single person.” He added that, “It is VC’s attempt to subdue the voice against the four-year programme, and we want him to resign as soon as possible for his authoritarian ways.”
DUSU has been at the forefront to oppose the Four Years' Undergraduate Program (FYUP) which is a birth child of DU’s Vice Chancellor.
Earlier DUTA (Delhi University Teachers’ Association) had condemned the blatant manner in which the Vice Chancellor usurped the powers of the Executive Council by granting himself an all-time authorization to approve appointments of Faculty and other group A Officers.
A similar incident took place at Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha University where College students had to face dictatorship of authorities by facing unwritten and undeclared ban in mid of performing pooja rituals on the occasion of Ram Navmi. Students living in the dormitory took prior permission in oral and written by the university’s authority but the acting vice chancellor Ramesh Kumar Pandey imposed ban on the pooja rituals despite the fact that performing such rituals like havan is part of their course.
Following this incident, there is an outburst among students as they feel, this kind of dictatorship by the university authorities is an insult to students’ democracy and to the Indian culture.
— Heena Nanda
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