A torchlight protest planned at India Gate against the four-year undergraduate course in Delhi University turned sour on Monday with protesters being bundled into police vans and thereafter being detained for several hours at Parliament Street police station for breaching prohibitory orders.
“We had only just started our protest when the police came and forced us into the vans. They took us to the police station and detained us there, but gave no explanation,” said Physics teacher Abha Dev Habib. She added that their placards and candles were snatched away before they were put in the three buses.
The sloganeering, however, continued inside the police station.
“This shows the desperate attempt of the UPA Government to curb all democratic voices of opposition against its anti-student, anti-teacher and anti-people policies. It also reveals how the UPA Government and the university administration are operating in an unholy alliance, mutually crushing all legitimate voices of stakeholders of the University against the FYUP,” said a statement by the All-India Students’ Association.
Delhi University starts its admission procedure on June 5. Those protesting against the programme said there is still time for the university to stop this course and revert to three-year model.
“Although the University will start selling forms from June 5, the actual admission will start only from June 27. It is still possible for the university and the government to scrap the FYUP and to revert to the three-year model,” read a statement by the Joint Action Front for Democratic Education (SC/ST/OBC/Left).
