DUTA Press Release: 11 January 2014
The St. Stephen’s College Governing Body has constituted a three membered Inquiry Committee against Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) President for her comments against the Principal in a newspaper report last summer. The DUTA Office Bearers take serious note of this development. The decision to charge her with defamation and institute a disciplinary enquiry against her reveals a perverse collusion of interests that feel threatened by her leadership of the teachers’ movement in the University. The three-membered Committee include both the Principal’s nominee and the Proctor, Delhi University.
The misgovernance and the autocratic behavior of the DU administration have resulted in a growing unrest amongst Delhi University community. Ms. Nandita Narain, as a senior activist and now as DUTA President has consistently exposed the University and College authorities and criticized them openly. Her public statement criticizing the St. Stephen’s College Principal’s attempt to bypass the Ordinance XV-D (University’s Ordinance pertaining to complaints of sexual harassment) and his sexist remarks against women students of the college has been prima facie interpreted as defamatory. Without giving her an opportunity to explain her position, the Governing Body decided to set up an enquiry into the charge of defamation.
The DUTA office bearers condemned this vindictive behavior of the officials and construe this as an attack on a teacher’s democratic right to demand justice, disagree with and criticize the unethical or dubious actions of authorities. The DUTA office bearers also see, in this decision, a conspiracy to derail the teachers’ movement. This has only furthered our resolve to continue our struggle for the just causes of teachers, students and karamcharis.
That such an incident should closely follow the malafide suspension of Mumbai University Professor Neeraj Hatekar for daring to criticize the University Vice Chancellor shows up a pattern of authoritarian governance and a concerted attack on democratic rights of teachers in Government-administered institutions of Higher Education. Both incidents are condemnable as they are representative of the cynical attempt, on the part of the Government, to stifleand subdue energies that work in defense of the Public character of such institutions against the emerging models of Corporate Control and backdoor Privatisation.
An emergency meeting of the DUTA Executive has been announced for Monday, 13 January, to take stock of this serious development and decide on an appropriate course of action. The office bearers appeal to the teaching community to turn up in large numbers for the meeting, and express their opposition to what, in essence, constitutes an attack on the DUTA.
Sandeep Harish Khanna Anita Ghosh Bhupinder Chaudhry
Vice-President Secretary Joint Secretary Treasurer
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