NSUI activists protest at DU over inclusion of a lesson on Savarkar

The protesters submitted a memorandum opposing the changes to the syllabus
File photo of Delhi University | (Pic: PTI)
File photo of Delhi University | (Pic: PTI)

The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) activists protested outside Delhi University (DU) Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh's office today, May 31, over the recent changes in the BA Political Science syllabus. The protesters also submitted a memorandum to the varsity administration opposing the changes to the syllabus.

DU teachers on Saturday, May 27, claimed a paper on Mahatma Gandhi in the fifth-semester Political Science syllabus was replaced by one on Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Today, NSUI alleged that the university has included the course on Savarkar following pressure from the Centre, as mentioned in a report by PTI.

Nitish Gaur, NSUI National Secretary, said, "The NSUI will start a big movement if the course is not removed and ensure that history is not taught to the students by distorting it. The truth of Savarkar's cowardice will be conveyed to every student," he told the gathered students.

There is also a proposal to drop a Philosophy course focusing on the works of Dr BR Ambedkar, NSUI said in a statement. "The Delhi University administration recently decided that an elective course on the philosophy of Dr BR Ambedkar will be removed from the Philosophy (Honours) undergraduate programme. It is also proposed to teach Savarkar in the Political Science course," it reads.

The student body has demanded that instead of removing Ambedkar from the elective course, an additional chapter should be added on him and efforts be made to motivate students to do maximum research on him. Kunal Sehrawat, President of NSUI Delhi, said that Ambedkar was an indigenous thinker of the social aspirations of the majority of the country's people, as per PTI.

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