New Delhi: The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), student wing of the Congress, has kicked up a storm over the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) circular to telecast Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on September 11, the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s address to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. While the UGC has asked 40,000 institutions across the country to telecast the “life-changing” speech, the NSUI has specifically objected to the speech being streamed in Delhi University, which goes to polls the next day.
“Delhi University is headed to elections. On September 12, students will elect the new governing body of the Delhi University Students’ Union. The PM’s address is a day before the election. On that day, moral code of conduct will be implemented on the campus. It is not only unethical for the PM’s speech to be broadcast in DU, it would also be a violation of the poll-code. NSUI will protest this unfair decision, which seeks to benefit the RSS student wing ABVP in the DUSU polls. The speech can be streamed anywhere, but not in a poll-bound University. Modi has effectively jumped into the DUSU campaign to help ABVP,” Neeraj Mishra, NSUI National Media coordinator, said.
A letter from UGC Acting Chairman VS Chuahan, addressed to Vice Chancellors of Universities across India, reads, “I would like to mention that on September 11, 2017, Honorable Prime Minister would be addressing a Student Leaders Convention on the occasion of Pandit Deendaya Upadhyaya’s Centenary celebration and 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Address at the Chicago World Parliament of Religions. The Theme of the programme is Young lndia, New lndia – A Resurgent Nation: from Sankalp to Siddhi’. Swami Vivekananda was a great philosopher-saint, who, through his teachings, strove to infuse a knowledge amongst people that addressed their spiritual as well socio-economic needs, so as to enhance the quality of their lives.”
The letter adds, “In light of the above, it is requested that all Vice Chancellors of Universities, Heads of Higher Educational Institutions provide an opportunity and facility to the teachers & students to view Honorable Prime Minister’s address on September 11, 2017 by i) Identifying for the above programme a common place, audio-visual room or auditorium in the campus ii) installing of proper TV/projection facility for wide viewing. The students and teachers may be encouraged to participate in the event. The programme/ venue may be prominently displayed on the campus notice board.”
Comments
0 comment