Eflu’s never-ending saga of woes

Students allege caste prejudice, file cases against Dean of the School of Germanic Studies

The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), which has recently been in news for wrong reasons, is facing another crisis, which could snowball into another round of students’ protests. Allegations are rife about caste discrimination by the varsity’s German Language Department, and two cases have been filed in the police station against Dean of the School of Germanic Studies Meenakshi Reddy.

Caste bias alleged

Both the complainants, M.Sriramulu and Ranjan Kumar from B.A. (German), allege caste innuendos and harassment, and deliberate conspiracy behind their huge backlog of subjects.

“I was not promoted to the sixth semester, as I had been failed repeatedly. Remedial classes as per the UGC norms were not given despite repeated requests. Fed up, I joined the part-time course in the Osmania University, and finished my senior diploma creditably,” says Ranjan. He alleges that the professors have asked him to quit the course whenever he approached them.

The other student, M. Sriramulu, failed to clear eight papers in German, though he acquired a diploma in Russian, and another in Spanish. He also alleges that he was not given remedial classes despite repeated requests, and forced to write supplementary exams along with the fourth semester exams, due to which he suffered tremendous stress and hospitalised. Interestingly, the university footed the hospitalisation expenses.

Infighting

A committee constituted at the behest of the National SC, ST Commission over the issue ran into rough weather, when two professors reportedly resigned from the membership peeved over the report not being revealed to them.

“The report was not shown to us, but submitted directly to the Vice-Chancellor. The committee met thrice, and made interim recommendations towards conducting remedial classes for Sriramulu, yet he was declared an ex-student,” said K.Satyanarayana, one of the two members.

Professor denies charges

When contacted, Prof. Meenakshi Reddy refused any caste discrimination on her part. Conducting remedial classes was up to the UGC cell in the university, she said, and added that Sriramulu had approached her for the classes with only a few days left for the exams. The exam scores were strictly as per the candidate’s performance, she said.

However, Prof. Lakshmi Chandra, a university spokesperson, maintained that remedial classes were conducted for Sriramulu. She said the committee found no caste discrimination.