DU Academic Council refers back revised curriculum to three depts
NEW DELHI: The revised curriculum of three departments at Delhi University was “referred back” amid the controversy over the inclusion of a story based on the Gujarat riots in the English syllabus. Though the Standing Committee gave its approval even after some of its members raising objection to the inclusion of the story — ‘Maniben alias Bibijaan’, the revised curriculum for undergraduate courses for English, History and Political Science did not get the Academic Council’s nod. The AC’s two-day meeting went on till late on Tuesday.
Written by Shilpa Paralkar, the story describes its protagonist Manu as “the promising secretary of Gujarat Yuvak Bajrang Dal” who teaches Physics at an RSS-run school. At the Standing Committee meeting on Thursday, there were some protests against the abolition of studies on Sufi Saint Amir Khusro from the syllabus of History Honours.
Meanwhile, the ABVP members allegedly reached the meeting venue and started protesting against the inclusion of false facts related to Hinduism. A professor claimed some ABVP members barged into the venue even though it is a restricted area. “Everybody, including the press and the Executive Council members, is stopped at the entrance. How did these people just get in?”
But, ABVP Delhi unit secretary Sidharth Yadav claimed that it was unfortunate that the members of the Academic Council are trying to introduce political agenda of the Left in the syllabus. “The administration has not given any concrete response yet. We will continue our struggle till our demands are met.”
AC members on warpath A section of the council members submitted a resolution, demanding the resignation of DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Tyagi for making the varsity “non-functional on most academic and administrative matters”.
“The V-C as the Chairperson of the Council has convened only few meetings of the Academic Council (AC) in past 30 months and intentionally delayed many important agendas from being considered...,” read the resolution, signed by about 10 members. Meanwhile, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) ended their two-day strike on Tuesday. Their allegation that the EWS quota for teaching posts in Delhi University was being implemented hastily, was discussed at the Academic Council meeting.