Manish Sisodia’s tweets about stopping ¬†the funding ¬†of 28 DU colleges ¬†sparked protests among the teachers and students ¬†of Delhi university on Tuesday. Members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ¬†(ABVP) and union members of Delhi University Students Union ¬†(DUSU ) gathered outside the Arts faculty in North Campus and protested by burning an effigy of Manish Sisodia, the education minister of Delhi.
The step taken by Sisodia and brought in notice by him through a series of tweets is a major blow on the 28 colleges which are funded by the Delhi government 12 of which are receive 100% funds while 16 receive 5%. He justified his reasons by saying that he cannot allow unchecked corruption and irregularities at these colleges and that no governing bodies have been formed in these colleges for the last 10 months.
Amit Tanwar, DUSU president said,‚Äù The Delhi government said that they will build 20 new colleges but instead they are closing down the existing ones‚Äù. He was supported by the teachers of the National Democratic Teacher’s Front (NDTF).‚ÄùThey want to de-affiliate the 12 fully funded colleges through this and then they will try to get them under the state university so that they can implement the 85% reservation for Delhi residents‚Äù, said A.K. Bhagi, the president of NDTF and a member of the executive council of DU. He also said that the executive council have been disregarded certain norms so that the nominees can be changed to fulfil the requirements as the council has received the names for the governing bodies at the colleges on July 13.
Accusing Sisodia of politics on education front, the protesters called the move ‘anti teacher ‘ ,’anti-students’,’anti-employees’ and ‘anti-education’. The dharna raised slogans like ‘Manish Sisodia murdabad ‘ and ‘Manish Sisodia sharam karo ‘ among many. Amit Tanwar said that he will wrote to the DU vice chancellor to settle this issue peacefully while saying that they will try to get the order withdrawn.
