Applicants to Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College felt cheated on Thursday when its principal S.K. Gupta went missing from his office, refusing to admit around 60 students who were promised admissions under the Extra-Curricular Activity and Sports Quota. Thursday was also the last day of admissions, which further panicked the students.
“I had auditioned for debate, where I was kept from 8 a.m. till 8 p.m. After that I received a phone call informing me that I had been selected. Then in July, the college Special Admissions Committee also uploaded some names on the website, stating that we had to appear before it for the interview. I was called up once again and told I had been selected for admission,” said applicant Iyce Malhotra, adding that the principal had suddenly declared this past Friday that he was going to cancel all admissions under the ECA quota.
Activists from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad and the National Students’ Union of India mobilised the students and after a dharna earlier this week managed to meet Mr. Gupta. The students said after stating that he will select around 21 people, the principal had finally said he will admit all the students. However, on Thursday, when the forms had to be signed by the principal, he went missing.
Students were left in the lurch and many of them kept waiting from 8.30 a.m. in the morning till the college closed its gates.
“He had earlier said that according to the university rules, the college is not compelled to take admissions under the ECA quota. Then he said that he had not approved of the seats and it was not he, but the admissions committee that had uploaded our names online. It is unbelievable that the principal refuses to take responsibility for what was uploaded on the college website. Even then it is okay if the college does not want students under the ECA and sports quota, but it should have decided this earlier and not after we let go of seats in other colleges,” she added.
“I spent almost a year applying to a foreign university and later rejected it. Now it is neither here nor there for me,” said Sriraj Sharma, who had gone through the rigorous dramatics auditions, that sometime go on overnight, and had made it.
“The issue here arose because of the university rules now state that the ECA and sports quota have to be five per cent and computed subject-wise. The problem is that these two rules do not go hand-in-hand. The students we choose for the ECA and sports do not match our seat availability. There was one student who was willing to change the stream after the uncertainty,” said Keval Arora, faculty in-charge of the Dramatics Society “Players”, said to be the best in the university.
At the end of the day, the students had reached the Vice-Chancellor’s office to seek an extension of the admissions. “Dean Students’ Welfare J.M Khurana came out and met us. He said that he will personally see us through the admissions. We have recorded his words, but I really do not know whether this is going to happen or not. Many of us might have to lose a year because admissions have been closed everywhere,” added Iyce.
