Press Release, 27.1.2014

The award of Padma Shri to Prof. Dinesh Singh, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi, should be a cause of serious alarm for the people of this country. It exposes the Government’s double-speak on Higher Education.

This award has been bestowed on Prof. Dinesh Singh at a time when drastic academic restructuring in conflict with National Policy (10+2+3) and of a highly destructive nature (the Four Year Undergraduate Programme – FYUP) have been rushed through in disregard of a wide spectrum of criticism raised by teachers and students of the University, by reputed intellectuals of the country, by several political leaders and by a cross-section of the media. It has been awarded, when students admitted to the FYUP have expressed their deep dismay at the substandard curricula and the waste of one year.

Prof. Dinesh Singh is also responsible for bulldozing a series of decisions in quick time without allowing the highest decision making bodies of the University the right to apply their mind to any of the concerns raised. Time and again statutory bodies like Committees of Courses and the Academic and Executive Councils have been coerced into taking decisions on matters requiring utmost consideration in a span of a short time. The Vice-Chancellor has, on more than one occasion, got himself authorised for taking decisions on behalf of statutory bodies revealing scant regard for democratic processes or transparent functioning. Important Ordinances of the University like that on prevention of Sexual Harassment have been subverted by executive orders.

The award displays incredible disregard for the real stakeholders of the University, its students and teachers, who have repeatedly drawn the attention of the Government, including the Minister for HRD, the Prime Minister and the President of India, to the authoritarian functioning of Prof. Dinesh Singh, which he has used to bulldoze his “reforms”. He has shut out all dialogue with the DUTA (as also with the DUSU and DUCKU) and used vistimisation and harassment to silence criticism and dissent. He has repeatedly humiliated the teaching community and unleashed unprecedented repression on all sections of the University community.

Finally, the award shows the duplicity of the Government, which on one hand talks incessantly about the need to improve the quality in higher education (in most speeches by the Prime Minister, the President of India and the Minister for HRD), but has allowed Prof. Dinesh Singh to ruin the quality of undergraduate education in Delhi University, hitherto considered one of the best in the country.

The awarding of the Padma Shri to Prof. Singh is but a carrot to other VCs, inciting them to transgress democratic decision making, academic freedom and free and fearless participation in decision making by the academia in order to further the Government’s agenda of increasing enrolment without spending on additional teachers and infrastructure. Who will pay the price for the destruction of the quality of education in Delhi University? The students currently enrolled and those from across the country who aspire to study here. By disregarding their interests, the Government has revealed its anti-people agenda. As the results of the recent Assembly elections in Delhi show, this arrogance is bound to cost it dear when it goes to seek a democratic mandate for another term.