Opposing the circular issued by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to observe ‘Good Governance Day’ on Christmas, Jawaharlal Nehru University’s teachers’ union are holding a counter-seminar — ‘Defining Good Governance: Democracy, Equity and Good Social Harmony’ — on Wednesday.
The student union, on the other hand, will be protesting outside the convention centre where the university administration will be organising a seminar and a competition on good governance per the HRD Ministry's directions.
“Good governance cannot just be a slogan and has to have important inputs with regard to social harmony, equity, de-bureaucratisation, checking corruption and black economy; at the national and local levels. We will be discussing this as well as issues regarding governance that concerns us directly,” said Arun Kumar JNU Teachers’ Association president.
Student union The student union, which is opposed to the HRD Ministry’s order, has roped in student organisations from other universities to join the protest.
“This order to force educational institutions to follow the ideological and political agenda of the government is an autocratic assault on the autonomy of educational institutions”, said Ashutosh Kumar JNU students’ union president.
Meanwhile, other universities across the city are following the Ministry’s orders and have organised events so that students needn’t come on Christmas.
Delhi University has two programmes listed on its agenda; one at the Gandhi Bhawan and another at the cluster innovation centre. Both programmes will have the “Use of technology in promoting good governance,” as well as a competition scheduled with prizes.
Jamia Millia Islamia will be organising a “tri-lingual oratory competition,” on the use of technology in promoting good governance.
