Press Release, 18.10.2012

Hundreds of students, karamcharis and teachers took to the streets of the Delhi University campus on a ‘Barefoot March’ organized by the DUTA to call attention on the pseudo-reform agenda of the MHRD through which higher education in India is rapidly being made inaccessible for the common man. The spectacular DUTA march which culminated at the Arts Faculty of the University was accompanied by slogans celebrating the enduring spirit of the common people and the revolutionary songs of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger. The DUTA maintains that the Government’s aggressive promotion of private interests and FDI in higher education betrays the tall claims it has been making on the Right to Education. Dependence on the private sector to give a push to the Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education is utterly wrong as the exponential increase in fees will ensure that the largest sections of the society, i.e. the lower middle class and the laboring poor shall be kept out of quality education. Since the greatest demand for higher education is among the people of these classes, the Government is fooling the people when it claims that private and foreign investment is beneficial for the expansion of higher education in the country. The students and teachers of Delhi University called the bluff on Kapil Sibal’s hollow rhetoric by describing his agenda as pro-imperialist.

The DU Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh also came under strident attack for his anti-academic role in turning the university into a “cattle pen” in which teachers and students are herded together like cattle under the burden of his whimsical changes. Students of SOL staged a spontaneous demonstration at the venue of the continuing DUTA Indefinite Hunger Strike just before the Barefoot March to protest against the Vice Chancellor’s sudden and inexplicable orders to withdraw the flexibility of time given to such students to complete their degrees. Since many of them are employed, they feel that it is inhuman of the VC to force them to complete their degrees within the stipulated time. The DUTA concurs with them and feels that the idea of Open Learning is defeated by such myopic decisions. The DUTA also holds the VC squarely responsible for not ensuring that SOL results are declared in time. The results of the May 2012 examinations have not yet been declared.

The teachers, students and karamcharis also protested against the VC’s undignified way of curbing the DUTA protest. Yesterday the VC had issued a notice, through the Registrar, to the DUTA terming its tent “illegal” and accusing the DUTA of using electricity in an unauthorized manner. The DUTA President made it clear that its sound-system was running on batteries which had nothing to do with the University electricity source. The sole connection derived from the University was for a bulb for use at night. Quite literally, the VC wants to keep the teachers in darkness. The University belongs to its teachers, students and karamcharis and they are also entitled to its resources. Ironically, the VC has no qualms wasting money from the Public Exchequer to fund the innumerable litigations on which the University has proceeded, against its own teachers and students. The DUTA questions why the VC should deny the teachers a little light for use at night while the Hunger Strike is on. The DUTA has termed the VC’s late machinations as indicative of his nervousness. His reactions are stemming from an attempt to break the Hunger Strike and silence the teachers. The DUTA expresses the satisfaction at the number of students from across Delhi University who spontaneously answered the DUTA’s call and participated in the Barefoot March.

The DUTA has warned the Vice Chancellor to mend his ways and humbly attend to the grievances of the University community, failing which it will organize an even bigger Joint Action with the DUCKU and DUSU in the coming days. The Barefoot March is just a taste of things to come, considering the limitless egoism of the Vice Chancellor.

S.D. Siddiqui, Secretary Amar Deo Sharma, President

https://duta.live

Delhi University Teachers’ Association

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