Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) held a protest demonstration today, Tuesday, September 5, at Delhi University’s Arts Faculty against the alleged discrimination faced by Hindi medium candidates in PhD interviews in the Department of Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies (MIL&LS).
The protestors claimed that the department, which has programmes in over 11 Indian languages, has been forcing the students to speak in English during the interviews despite the curriculum being available in Hindi medium.
“Many students are unable to speak in English and have communicated this to the university administration as well. We have received several complaints from the department. After we submitted memorandums to Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh and the Head of Department (HoD) MIL&LS, we were told that necessary actions would be taken against the department,” claimed Bhim Kumar, Member, Delhi State Committee, Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS).
Moreover, the protestors also demanded that a fresh interview process be conducted for PhD admissions in the Department of MIL&LS and that the department issue an official apology for the bias against Hindi medium candidates.
“The department is not only discriminating against the students of Hindi medium but going against the very objective for which it was established. It was established with the aim of bringing students from different languages and literary traditions together for inter-language study and research into the various stages of development that modern Indian languages and literary traditions have gone through. However, given the continuous elitist bias of the department in favour of the English language, it is seriously doubtful that the department would be able to achieve this aim,” the student group expressed in a press release.
