The move intriguingly was made and strategically shared with media by the university spokesperson Malay Neerav, on the same evening when a big delegation of teachers of the university under the banner of National Democratic Teachers Federation (NDTF), an affiliate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was felicitating HRD minister and seeking an assurance from her over the reversal of the controversial Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP). Commenting on the university move, NDTF leader Inder Mohan Kapahy said, ‘Move of suspend the employees was a dirty trick of the university authorities. The VC wants to curry favours from MHRD and yet keep the issue (of minister’s degree) alive by creating controversy around suspension.’
Giving details of the course of events, Kapahy told Millennium Post that over 400 teachers including senior professors and principals had assembled and demanded reversal of FYUP. Kapahy said, ‘The members present there opposed the forcible introduction of FYUP by vice chancellor Dinesh Singh without any in-depth and comprehensive discussion and debate. All MPs from Delhi who came for the function assured to pursue the Delhi BJP’s stand of rollback.’ A delegation of teachers is meeting the HRD minister on Monday to make a detailed presentation on the controversial programme.
At the felicitation, Rakesh Sinha, a known RSS ideologue, blamed Delhi University administration for encouraging caste politics. Sinha was particularly critical of ‘nefarious role’ of VC’s close aide Prof Umesh Rai, director South Campus. ‘For the first time in the history of DU the university became a den of caste politics of the lowest level and of some other blatant negative traits. High university offices were converted into departments of dirty tricks. Appointments are being made on extraneous non-academic considerations,’ Sinha is said to have alleged.
Incidentally, Umesh Rai, who is also from RSS background, a few days back with an eye to save the FYUP had invited senior RSS ideologue Krishna Gopal to the campus to deliver a lecture on the topic Education in India: Mission and Vision. ‘Rai, who was earlier assaulted by ABVP workers, by sharing dais with RSS top honcho tried to send message of alignment with the people who formed government post-16 May,’ said a university teacher.
NDTF and the students body Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad have been at the forefront of the agitation opposing the introduction of FYUP in the university. Even senior party leaders like Arun Jaitley wrote on the matter opposing the move. Delhi unit of the BJP, in both its manifestos for the state and the Lok Sabha polls, had demanded scrapping of the programme, whose implementation fetched Delhi University vice chancellor Dinesh Singh a Padma Shri from the now ousted Manmohan Singh government.