Responding to the appeal made by DUTA, the office bearers of the non-teaching staff union DUCKU also came to the site of the Hunger Strike outside the VC’s Office and addressed a packed gathering of teachers and students. They expressed their complete solidarity with the DUTA struggle. Besides the above-mentioned colleges, teachers from IP College, Miranda House, Mata Sundri College and Hindu College also attended in large numbers. By late afternoon, the count of teachers who had come to express their support for the Hunger Strike had gone up to a few hundreds. In his public address, long-time DUTA activist and former AC and EC member Inder Mohan Kapahy lambasted the VC for hurtling the University into chaos and anarchy by taking hasty and dictatorial steps to bring about changes which are lacking in accountability.
Former DUTA President Vijender Sharma argued while any University has the public responsibility to ensure that the theoretical and practical foundations of democracy are kept intact in its functioning, the DU VC has put the University in an indefensible position by scuttling the expression of democratic opinion and paralyzing statutory systems at every level.
Taking the enthusiastic response of teachers into account, the DUTA has decided to observe a candle-light vigil tomorrow evening between 5 pm and 7 pm in order to highlight the plight of the four thousand ad-hoc teachers who have been endlessly awaiting the start to the appointment process. The DUTA appeals to teachers across the University to join the vigil in as large numbers as possible in order to create a meaningful impact. On Sunday evening, the cultural group Parcham is expected to regale the gathered teachers with its repertoire of revolutionary and protest songs. Meanwhile the Hunger Strike will continue on all these days with more colleges joining in. Teachers from Hindu College, Dyal Singh (Morning) College, Swami Shraddhanand College and Sri Ram College of Commerce are scheduled to take over tomorrow and continue the Relay Hunger strike.
S.D. Siddiqui, Secretary Amar Deo Sharma, President
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