Will Delhi University name its new colleges after Savarkar, Vajpayee and Sushma Swaraj?

The university's Executive Council has proposed to name its upcoming colleges after these leaders and a few others
Delhi University (Pic: PTI)
Delhi University (Pic: PTI)

The University of Delhi, on Wednesday, discussed a proposal to name its upcoming colleges after prominent, deceased right-wing politicians including Hindu Mahasabha activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and former Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj. While a final decision will be made on this matter on Tuesday, sources associated with the university's Academic Council say that the names were not put up for discussion.

The agenda of the meeting where the said proposal was discussed, says, "The council resolved that the names of these colleges/ centres may be given after the names of Sushma Swaraj, Swami Vivekananda, Veer Savarkar, Sardar Patel." It adds that the names of Atal Bihari Bajpayee, Savitri Bai Phule, Atun Jaitley, Choudhary Brahm Prakash and CD Deshmukh are also under consideration. EdexLive is in possession of the agenda. The final decision will be taken on Tuesday, after discussion. This was confirmed to us by two members of the Academic Council.

However, news reports suggest that the EC has already given a nod to name a college after Savarkar.On the condition of anonymity, an AC member said that not all the proposed names were discussed among the council. "Some of us had proposed that we name a college after Savitribai Phule," they said, adding that the Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) members were also unaware of this happening. While the DUTA has not issued an official statement on the issue, its treasurer Dr Abha Dev Habib said that the university is only doing this to please the ruling party. "I would suggest naming the colleges after Savitribai Phule and Sardar Vallabhai Patel. We already have a college named after Swami Vivekananda. The rest are all politicians," she says.

Reports in the media have suggested that the Delhi University Vice-Chancellor will be moving a motion to obtain the authority to name all upcoming colleges at will from the list of 'approved' names and that it is believed that the motion will be approved by the Academic Council.
According to the agenda, two separate plots of land, one measuring 16.5 acres and the other measuring 40 bigas were allotted to the university by the Delhi government, to construct colleges. "On these pieces of land, the university has decided to set up facilitation centres to cater to the needs and requirements of students living in the far flung areas of Delhi and NCR as a first step towards opening a full-fledged college," it says.

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