Photographs: Courtesy All India Students Association's Facebook page Divya Nair/Rediff.com
The students, who were on their way to meet President Pranab Mukherjee to request his intervention and help arrive at a favourable conclusion in the UGC versus University of Delhi fracas over scrapping of the four-year undergraduate programme, have no plans to back down from their agitation yet. Read on for details...
As the fracas in the capital city continues over the roll-back of the University of Delhi's controversial four-year undergraduate programme, things took an ugly turn on Thursday morning as 60 students from the university were detained for demanding the annulment of the programme.
The students -- from Deshbandhu College, Ramjas College, Kirori Mal College, Satyawati College and Zakir Hussain Delhi College among others -- were on their way to Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet President Pranab Mukherjee and request his intervention to help arrive at a favourable conclusion in the impending matter when they were detained.
Speaking to Rediff.com, Shubham Sundli, a student of Ramjas College said, "About 60 of us had gathered at Jantar Mantar at 11 this morning. We were proceeding to meet the President to request his intervention in rolling back the four-year programme when a group of policemen blocked our way and detained us at Parliament Street Police Station. We tried explaining them that we just wanted to meet the President and present our case, but the police have refused us from going further."
"After a few hours, they took two of our members -- Neeraj Kumar and Akbar Choudhary -- to the President's office. Although they could not meet the President, we have submitted our memorandum to the President's office. We are now on our way to the University Grants Commission office where we will continue to voice our dissent," Sundli added while speaking to us over the telephone.
On Thursday afternoon, the All India Students Association's Facebook page had posted: Today we planned a March at 12 noon to Rashtrapati Bhavan, demanding MHRD intervention to end the crisis of DU immediately. Even before the March started, the police forcibly detained AISA activists in Parliament Street police station. When another group from JNU, led by Comrade Akbar, Comrade Ashutosh, Comrade Chintu and others reached Parliament street police station, and started protesting outside the station - the Delhi police forcibly arrested them. Several of our activists are injured, women activists are manhandled. Please reach Parliament Street police station asap, the protest is going on."
Sundli, one of the protestors who was detained, clarified that they weren't tortured, but many students had suffered minor injuries. The police authorities were also reported to have passed nasty comments to discourage protestors.
"A policeman passed a comment on one of our female activists -- he said: 'Zyada heroine ban rahi ho yaha protest karne aayi ho'" Sundli shared while he was on a police bus heading towards the UGC.
The students were marching towards the University Grants Commission office from where they will continue their protest 4.30 pm onwards.
On Wednesday night, the University Grants Commission had issued a fresh ultimatum to the Delhi University to begin the admission process for the undergraduate classes after dumping the controversial four-year course.
However colleges felt they needed clear-cut guidelines from a "competent authority" which further spurred confusion among students and teachers. (Read all about it here!)
Nearly three lakh students have been affected by the Delhi University's four year undergraduate programme that was implemented in July 2013.
ALSO READ: DU students SpeakOut: 'We were treated like puppets'
Comment
article