New Delhi: The Delhi University teachers who are in favour of the Four-year Undergraduate Programme will hold a hunger strike on Tuesday. They allege political interference in the issue and say that the Human Resource Development Ministry and the University Grants Commission are responsible for the mess.
"It is all a conspiracy. They want students to leave for private universities, 4500 teaching posts are still vacant, the hiring processes is still on. We are protesting against it. Surendra Kumar was attacked yesterday during a TV show by ABVP and NSUI goons, no one has been arrested yet," former DU Teachers Association president Aditya Narayan Mishra said.
"The HRD and UGC are responsible for everything, who are they who want to run the university? The university does not run from political party offices. We are sitting on a hunger strike," he added.
Caught in the crossfire are students with 36 colleges deciding at the last minute not to issue their first cut-off lists till the crisis is resolved. On the eve of the first cut-off lists, confusion over the fate of the four-year undergraduate course continued. A day after the UGC issued an ultimatum to Delhi University, prospective students continue to remain in limbo.
"We are getting conflicting guidelines from DU and the UGC. So it will not be possible for us to conduct the admissions process," said SK Garg, the DU Principals Association President.
The university is split over the course with DU Teachers Association asking the university to comply with the UGC while others calling the UGC interference unacceptable. The debate over the four year course also took a violent turn on Monday with students assaulting a professor during a television show.
Even as students wait for a resolution to the crisis, politics over the issue was not far behind. "We have been fighting for the FYUP to be scrapped," said an ABVP member even as Congress leader Manish Tewari questioned why the UGC did not raise the issue when DU was implementing the 4-year course.
It looks like the haste with which the four-year course was introduced, it's being scrapped with the same speed. But even as politics over the fate of the four year course in Delhi university continues, it's really the students who have to face the brunt of it.
"I don't think this is something that new applicants should worry about. Some of us are happy with the way things are proceeding.," said a student.
"We are not trying to politicise the issue. We made it very clear in our manifesto last year that we want to do away with the 4 year course. We wrote to principals all over DU. We want the existing students to be able to do away with it as well as the new applicants," an ABVP member said.
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