For almost a year, the research scholars in the country were in the news, for protesting for a hike in their fellowship. But after the government failed to fulfill their demands, the researchers have now decided to fight for their rights in the most democratic way possible — by contesting the elections. In a major announcement, a representative of the research scholars will contest the Lok Sabha elections from the South Delhi constituency, as an independent candidate.
"The candidate will be finalised on Wednesday night, after a meeting. We have shortlisted a few names already," says Nikhil Gupta, National Representative and Coordinator, Research Scholars of India. "As researchers, we will need a representative who can voice our demands about higher education, fellowship and teaching positions in the parliament," he adds. The researchers say that they have no commitment towards any political party, as nobody supported them. "Neither the ruling party nor the opposition was in our support. The only politician who tweeted in our support was Shashi Tharoor, but even he forgot about it after that," says Nikhil.
He goes on to say that while the researchers had already planned on fighting the elections, they were late in filing the nomination since they didn't have any political or financial backing. When asked, why anyone should vote for the candidate, Nikhil said, "People are voting in favour of parties, which are dividing them in the name of caste and religion. Here, we are uniting them for education," he says. He added that they have support from the student communities and unions in Delhi. Research scholars all over the country were protesting for a substantial hike in their fellowship since early 2018. After months of protests, the government approved a 25 per cent hike in the fellowship, against the demanded 80 per cent hike.
