Delhi University has removed names of 101 people selected by the Delhi government to be on the governing bodies of 28 colleges.
The DU administration in May sent the government a list of 386 names. Of these, 140 (five for each of the 28 colleges) were to be chosen for the governing bodies.But instead of approving the names,DU’s executive council (EC) rejected 101, and decided to send the government a fresh list of 157 names, so it could again choose 140.
“We have written to DU and told them this small list is not acceptable at all. All the names we had chosen have been removed. The only thing we are saying is that we want more names, with greater and wider variety,” Atishi Marlena, advisor to Education Minister Manish Sisodia, said.
The DU administration did not consult the EC before sending the 386-name list to the government. It was only when the government sent back 140 names that the EC raised objections, and decided to send a fresh list to the government.
Dean of Colleges Devesh Sinha said, “I met Manish Sisodia a week ago. He asked for more names and we will be sending the list soon. The EC had unanimously rejected the earlier panel, so we sent a list of 157 names to the government.”
Who was removed
Of the 101 names that were removed,35 teachers were from JNU. Of these, more than 50 per cent belonged to either the School of Social Sciences or School of International Studies. Some prominent names removed include Archana Prasad, against whom an FIR was registered by Chhattisgarh Police for the alleged murder of a tribal, former JNU V-C Sudhir Sopory and former Censor board member Ira Bhaskar.
The new list sent to the government has 16 professors from JNU.
Other prominent names removed by DU include sociologist Dipankar Gupta, educationists Shailaja Chandra and Krishna Kumar, musician Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, musician Anup Jalota, economist Harsha Vardhana Singh, and teachers from the South Asian University and Jamia Millia Islamia.
