The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad was accused of barging into the Arts Faculty of the Delhi University on July 23 and protesting in front of the History, English, Political Science, Sociology and Hindi departments simultaneously. Teachers of the university also accused the ABVP members of trying to break into the History and English Department. The ABVP though said that they merely wanted to present the respective HODs with a memo demanding Representation, Review and Rational debate or as they call it — the 3R's.
The English Department was scheduled to have a departmental meeting at 2 pm and the teachers were on their way to the department when they were allegedly stopped by the ABVP members. "They chanted Bharat Mata Ki Jai and charged at us as soon as we tried to get in. They have cut off our access to the department. There are nine of us still waiting outside the Arts Faculty to get in," said Saikat Ghosh, an Assistant Professor of English who was supposed to attend the meeting. Saikat added that none of the police personnel who were already there because of a pre-planned protest by the All India Students Association (AISA) paid any attention to their complaints about not being able to access their own department. "The HOD is inside but our access has been totally cut-off. I am not too surprised that the police did not help us. The ABVP has been working with the government's blessing. Why will they be stopped?" he added.
"Since the Executive Committee has sent back the syllabi for further review the ball is in the respective HOD's court. We want then to include a provision for representation of all stakeholders, a provision for review and rational discussion in the syllabus itself when it is formulated the first time. Why should only the elite get a chance to have they voice heard when the syllabus is made?" asked Siddharth Yadav, State Secretary of Delhi, ABVP.
AISA had already planned a protest march from the Arts Faculty at 1.30 pm to condemn the recent syllabi debacle at the Delhi University.
