Counter programmes to Good Governance Day were organised by teachers’ and students’ unions in both Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University on Wednesday in protest against the “hypocrisy” of not practising what one preaches about “good governance”.
The universities had been ordered to organise a talk and some competitions on good governance by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Many chose to organise these programmes centrally, department wise and college-wise.
In Delhi University, the teachers’ union tried to prove a point during seminars in some colleges by posing difficult questions.
‘Difficult questions’“Members of the DUTA [Delhi University Teachers’ Association] Executive and activists staged a protest demonstration at the venue of the seminar on good governance in Bhagini Nivedita College. We sat holding placards. After the speaker finished, we raised some questions about illegal imposition of biometric and attendance registers, forcing teachers working on ad hoc basis to attend college from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and even during winter break, and not following rotation principle for membership of the governing body,” said DUTA president Nandita Narain.
In JNU, the seminar on good governance was sparsely attended, while the protest outside the convention centre, organised by the students’ union, was teeming with people.
“The decision to impose Good Governance Day on us comes along with the communal atmosphere created around attempts to scrap December 25 or Christmas,” said JNU students’ union president Ashutosh Kumar.
‘Government-dictated celebration’The teachers’ union organised a seminar, for which it invited teachers’ union presidents from other universities to talk.
“We have taken a resolution to defend JNU’s autonomy by resisting the government-dictated celebration of Good Governance Day on December 24 or 25,” said JNU teachers’ union president Arun Kumar.