The right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad as well as a collective of Left-leaning student organisations held protests on campus on Wednesday against the syllabus-revision exercises being carried out by the university.
Critical thinking
The Left-wing students alleged that the ABVP was being “intolerant” by opposing certain texts in the English syllabus and that critical thinking at the university needed to be kept alive by protecting universities and textbooks from “communal forces”.
The ABVP at its protest claimed that young minds were being being brainwashed through the new syllabus. The Student Federation of India (SFI) claimed that over the last week, the right-wing communal forces, working amongst the teacher and student community of Delhi University, was on a fit of rage over the progressive content taught in some undergraduate courses in the university that relates to a story offered in a paper in the B.A. Programme course, and two courses offered to students of English (Hons.). The ABVP said that students should have a say in academic matters of the university.
Meanwhile, Professor Rasal Singh, a member of the academic council, who had raised objections over the syllabus, said that the study material of four departments including English, history, political science and sociology had been sent for review.
At the meeting on Monday he had raised issue with the inclusion of text in the English syllabus which dealt with references to the Bajrang Dal and the RSS, which he said was being represented in a bad light.
