Jun 24 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
DU can do what it wants: FYUP camp
New Delhi:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
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While one group of students held a slightly premature celebration of the FYUP rollback—still not announced formally—a teachers’ group, Academics for Action and Development (Mishra) got together to tell students, teachers and the media all the reasons the UGC doesn’t have the right to intervene. On top of the list is that Delhi University is an autonomous institution and UGC’s actions are in violation of that.This group also reminded that the HRD ministry and UGC, which has suddenly found FYUP “illegal”, hadn’t objected to its introduction last year.
“UGC’s diktat not only violates the long-standing autonomy of DU since its inception in 1922, but it is also in contradiction of its own rules, regulations and letters to DU where it clearly states the freedom on duration of courses with a cap only on the minimum number of years for awarding a degree,” says a statement by AAD. “UGC has
overstepped its own mandate, act and regulation in acting as a more than willing instrument of the HRD ministry.” “UGC can only advise and recommend,” argues Mishra.Mishra also said that DU had written to the Visitor, President Pranab Mukherjee, informing him of the changes. “The President never
writes `I am pleased to sanction these',“ he says, “If there's no objection, it is understood the changes have been approved.“The meeting, however, didn't end well for AAD-Mishra with a prominent member being roughed up by students during a debate for a television channel. Student groups ABVP and NSUI--for once, on the same side of the FYUP debate, that is, against it--passed the blame. “The fight was between ABVP activists and Surendra Kumar (the history department),“ says NSUI's Amrish Ranjan Pandey. ABVP's Rohit Chahal says, “I'm not so stupid that I will try to beat up a teacher in front of a TV crew. In fact, I was stunned to see Congress’ student wing beating up its teachers’ wing.” Earlier, unaffected by the silence maintained by the authorities, students of ABVP participated in frantic, if slightly premature, celebrations at the arts faculty on North Campus on Monday. It wasn’t the speech-and-march affair promised but it involved crackers, colour, dhols and hysterical dancing. Thinking the rollback is already in the bag, Chahal says, “It’s not over yet as the VC is yet to resign.” Meanwhile, AISA, which essentially began the student campaign against FYUP in 2013, took their campaign away from campus on Monday. They demanded an “immediate intervention of the HRD ministry to ask the Visitor to annul the FYUP Ordinances, ensure AICTE-approved BTech degrees for the first batch” and argued that the rollback “cannot be left to DU principals who have been vociferous supporters of FYUP”.
“UGC’s diktat not only violates the long-standing autonomy of DU since its inception in 1922, but it is also in contradiction of its own rules, regulations and letters to DU where it clearly states the freedom on duration of courses with a cap only on the minimum number of years for awarding a degree,” says a statement by AAD. “UGC has
overstepped its own mandate, act and regulation in acting as a more than willing instrument of the HRD ministry.” “UGC can only advise and recommend,” argues Mishra.Mishra also said that DU had written to the Visitor, President Pranab Mukherjee, informing him of the changes. “The President never
writes `I am pleased to sanction these',“ he says, “If there's no objection, it is understood the changes have been approved.“The meeting, however, didn't end well for AAD-Mishra with a prominent member being roughed up by students during a debate for a television channel. Student groups ABVP and NSUI--for once, on the same side of the FYUP debate, that is, against it--passed the blame. “The fight was between ABVP activists and Surendra Kumar (the history department),“ says NSUI's Amrish Ranjan Pandey. ABVP's Rohit Chahal says, “I'm not so stupid that I will try to beat up a teacher in front of a TV crew. In fact, I was stunned to see Congress’ student wing beating up its teachers’ wing.” Earlier, unaffected by the silence maintained by the authorities, students of ABVP participated in frantic, if slightly premature, celebrations at the arts faculty on North Campus on Monday. It wasn’t the speech-and-march affair promised but it involved crackers, colour, dhols and hysterical dancing. Thinking the rollback is already in the bag, Chahal says, “It’s not over yet as the VC is yet to resign.” Meanwhile, AISA, which essentially began the student campaign against FYUP in 2013, took their campaign away from campus on Monday. They demanded an “immediate intervention of the HRD ministry to ask the Visitor to annul the FYUP Ordinances, ensure AICTE-approved BTech degrees for the first batch” and argued that the rollback “cannot be left to DU principals who have been vociferous supporters of FYUP”.
