The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has secured a sweeping victory in the Delhi Assembly elections against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The lotus party made a comeback to the national capital after 27 years. While this is indeed a celebration for the party cadre, students from Delhi consider it a scary situation.
While most students concluded that there have been major infrastructure developments at the elementary school level under the AAP government, they were unsure about the progress in the higher education, research, and college domains.
"It will bring quite a few challenges," opined Shefali from Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD) about BJP gaining power in Delhi.
Further, she claimed, "The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 privatises education. The BJP has announced it will implement NEP across all schools, which will adversely affect school fees, recruitment, and other factors."
"NEP and saffronisation of education are the two main daunting implementations we could witness," she feared. Shefali also complained that every time, employment assurances are given but are not taken seriously, which affects the youth.
Similarly, Sanam Husain, a PhD scholar from Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI), opined that the BJP's governance is a massive attack on education. As a PhD scholar, I feel it is a scary situation to have the BJP in power in Delhi," she said.
According to her, because of the Centre, "The stipend for research has declined massively, and fellowships such as MANF (Maulana Azad National Fellowship) were discontinued. Savitribai Jyotirao Phule Fellowship for Single Girl Child has not been renewed, and its last applications were taken in 2021."
Husain made a striking statement when she shared, "Student democracy at educational universities and institutions is at stake." In the same context, she recalled that JMI had issued a notice instructing students not to criticise any government officers on campus.
On the other hand, a PhD scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Tarun Rajpurohit, opines that the change in government is for the benefit of Delhi. "There is an immediate need for the recruitment of contractual teachers in almost all schools and colleges. After 13 years, Delhi University has made recruitments recently," he alleged.
Rajpurohit expresses hope that one party at the state and centre will bring in positive developments for the state.
BJP's manifesto To recall, a few assurances given by the BJP in their Delhi manifesto are:
- Free KG to PG education to poor students taking admission in Delhi’s government institutions
- Empowering Delhi’s youth to prepare for various competitive examinations of the state government by providing one-time financial assistance of Rs 15,000 and reimbursing travel costs to the examination centre and application fees for up to two attempts
- Launch the Dr BR Ambedkar Stipend Scheme in Delhi to provide a monthly stipend of Rs 1,000 to Scheduled Caste students pursuing technical and vocational courses in Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), skill centres, polytechnics and so on.
