A cacophony in which “FYUP” resonated the most invaded Delhi University’s North Campus in the middle of the admission season on Wednesday. These were the anti-FYUP protesters who have been consistently agitating for a year. There were also some first-year students, mainly from the B.Tech stream, who were protesting for the four-year programme.
Outside the Arts Faculty gate several students sat in a semi-circle, holding placards. “We are FYUP, talk to us, don’t scrap it, make it better, save FYUP. DU-VC talk to us, do not politicise the issue” they chanted at regular intervals and in perfect sync. They insisted that they were not asked to be there either by the university administration or their teachers and that they had met through the social media and the crowd had been mobilised without any one specific person being in charge.
“We did not get even one survey in which anybody asked us if we liked the course or not, we wonder who these students are who have said such things,” said Jaskirat Singh, one of the students.
The students, mostly belonging to the B.Tech programmes were worried that their chances of finding jobs at the end of four years would diminish if the FYUP was revoked. The students also had well-formulated answers for every criticism of the FYUP, which was mostly reflective of the reasons that the university always states while defending it.
The demand for revoking the FYUP has been gaining strength ever since news reports appeared that the new Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani was considering revoking the programme. On Wednesday, there was the “Save DU” campaign comprising teachers from the Delhi University Teachers’ Association and the All India Students’ Association, the All India Democratic Students’ Association and the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, who all held public meetings in front of the Vishwa Vidyalaya metro station to address the doubts of the students.
“If this issue does not get resolved before the academic year begins then the administration will have a lot of trouble in its hands this year,” said Abha Dev Habib, a teacher who is one of the main organisers of the “Save DU campaign”.
Both the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which controls the Delhi University Students’ Union and the National Students’ Union of India have been protesting against the FYUP.
