Eighteen Rajya Sabha members on Friday have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemning the “intimidation” of the Delhi University’s Academic Council by the ABVP activists.
The parliamentarians, belonging to the CPI, CPI(M), Congress, DMK, RJD and SP, have expressed concern over the reports of the ABVP’s forcible entry into the V-C’s office complex on Tuesday, and allegations of threats made to the council members. “We have learnt that the intention behind this forced entry was to intimidate professors of certain departments to coerce them into making certain changes in their syllabi that would make it acceptable to the ideology and values endorsed by the RSS,” the letter stated.
The MPs said that the atmosphere of physical threat raised questions about the state of law and order, free speech and debate in public institutions and demanded that the PM intervene to ensure the academic autonomy of DU at the earliest.
“We believe that statutory bodies of universities should be allowed the autonomy to apply transparent processes in curriculum revision and exercise their academic integrity,” they said.
Saikat Ghosh, professor of the English department and member of the Academic Council claimed that the UG Curriculum Revision Committee had sent another list of corrections. “The NDTF and ABVP may be successful in their nefarious agenda as they are more powerful than the university. Academic arguments are not being heard and the university is following their diktats” he alleged.
Meanwhile, the ABVP has decided to start a “satyagrah” from Monday till the Executive Council Meeting on Tuesday to protest what it termed “propagandistically introduced changes in the curriculum”.
In a statement, the Parishad demanded that students be made stakeholders in the curriculum revision process, that the changed syllabus of Political Science, Hindi, Journalism, History, English and Sociology courses be revoked and a review committee consisting of external members be set up.
The right-wing teachers’ group, National Democratic Teachers Front which originally raised the objections on the syllabus, has written to the Vice-Chancellor demanding that all the syllabi be sent back to respective departments for “comprehensive review” and said that a “piecemeal, hasty and superficial approach” on the changes demanded would not find their support. Final approval for the syllabus prior to the start of UG courses will be given at the executive council’s meeting on Saturday.
