DUTA PRESS RELEASE: 18 October 2018

At the behest of the MHRD, the UGC has constituted a Working Group to study the Delhi University Act, 1922 and explore possible alterations that may dissolve the University’s institutional autonomy and suspend the democratic rights of its academic community. Specifically, the UGC Committee has been asked to consider bringing Exams/ Teaching/ Learning/ Evaluation under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA). This comes immediately after the UGC’s directive to all central universities to adopt CCS rules for teachers. The DUTA condemns this vicious attack on the academic community’s intellectual autonomy and the violation of its moral prerogative to nurture free thinking and democratic values.

While the Government has been aggressively pursuing policies of commercialisation and privatisation in higher education, teachers unions like DUTA have been at the forefront of protests and creating public opinion against such policies. The DUTA has also exposed the Government’s brazen attempts to encourage the entry of big businesses and profits in higher education, at the cost of the educational rights of the economically weaker sections and socially marginalised groups of citizens. The DUTA’s continuous efforts in this regard have contributed to a critical public awareness of the anti-people aims of this Government. As a result, this Government is resorting to tactics that will silence the DUTA and compel teachers to mutely submit to its authoritarian measures.

The ESMA was promulgated in 1968 in order to ensure that people’s lives and public order would not be endangered due to the cessation of critically important services. To try and bring university teachers under ESMA is a draconian and foolish move as teachers are not mere service providers. Teachers are creators and disseminators of knowledge and informed opinion. The Government’s move to curb the democratic rights of teachers through ESMA and CCS indicates desperation and nervousness about introducing changes that cannot stand up to academic scrutiny.

The DUTA has never exercised the option of resorting to strikes or suspension of work unless the situation has been exceptional enough to merit such a drastic course of action. It has always ensured that teachers work overtime to compensate for the loss of teaching days  and evaluation duty, in the event of an occasional  strike or boycott. The continuous failure of the Government and DU Administration to fill up thousands of  vacancies, the continuous denial of pensions to retired teachers and the continuous failure to implement the Reservation Policy in appointments have created an exceptionally unstable situation for which the Government is squarely responsible. Instead of trying to address these issues that are integral to the health of Delhi University and the morale of its teachers, the Government has resorted to bullying teachers into submission.

The DUTA urges the Government to view its own failures in a sensible light and stop harassing teachers. It demands immediate dissolution of the Working Group and an end to any further attempts to impose ESMA or CCS rules on university teachers. If the Government fails to heed this appeal, it will have to face tough questions in the coming days. The DUTA is driven by the broadest public consensus on issues pertaining to higher education; hence, it will not be cowed down by threats and tantrums of a Government that is loath to be reminded of its responsibilities. The DUTA has successfully fought back attempts in the past too to bring universities under ESMA and will do so even now.