DU teachers’ protest on academic reforms enters Day 5

Since October 10,DUTA members have been on an indefinite hunger strike to protest the manner in which DU was trying to introduce academic reforms.

Parcham member Vijaya Venkataraman,who teaches Spanish in DU,said: “The decision to revive Parcham was taken keeping in mind the conditions in society today. One of the songs on which we performed today was Woh humare geet kyun rokna chahte hai (why do they want to stop us from singing),resonates with the conditions in the university. It is exemplified by the Vice-Chancellor’s refusal to interact with DUTA. The reforms introduced are going to destroy the university’s structure,” Venkataraman said.

Apart from performing on songs of their new album Soorat Badalni Chahiye,the group also sang old songs. “We performed in front of a gathering of teachers and students. Since most people remembered the songs of Parcham’s album,we sang those on popular demand,” Venkataraman said. Following Parcham’s performance,some teachers also recited poems.

A satirical letter to the Vice-Chancellor was drafted by Sanjeev Kumar,a Hindi teacher at Deshbandhu College. Kumar had read a similar open letter praising the Vice-Chancellor a year ago.

“Today’s letter says that the V-C is following the advice given in the previous letter. Apart from urging the V-C to watch Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator,we have suggested that a row of food stalls be set up in front of the protest site to make the DUTA end their strike. If he thinks that the teachers have risen above material things — as his no-work,no-pay policy didn’t have an effect on them — the first piece of advice will be useless. The V-C,in this case,can instead threaten all heads of colleges and departments to take action against absentee teachers or face a firing squad,” Kumar said.

Eight teachers observed the hunger strike on Sunday,but there was no communication from the DU administration. DUTA president Amar Deo Sharma said the association “may decide on a more drastic course of action”.

University officials refused to comment on the matter.