Delhi University students protest outside V-C office, seek campus reopening

The protesting students, mostly from SFI and AISA, said they will continue the strike till the DU administration issues the notice for reopening or gives them a written assurance regarding reopening

Three days after the Delhi government allowed resumption of physical classes in schools and colleges in the Capital, the lack of directions from the Delhi University (DU) on reopening has sparked a protest with groups of students boycotting online classes and raising slogans outside the vice-chancellor’s (VC) office on Monday. DU officials have said that they are still “working out the modalities” of reopening the campus.

Students from various student political organisations protests at North Campus, on Monday. (Sanchit Khanna/HT)

The protesting students, mostly from Students Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students Assocation (AISA), said they will continue the strike till the DU administration issues the notice for reopening or gives them a written assurance regarding the same.

“The frustration of students is quite evident. The VC must address the situation in the next two days or else we will have to break the locks on our classrooms ourselves,” said Ankit Birpali, SFI secretary at Hindu College.

During the protest, some students barged into the gates of the VC office, breaking through the police barricades. Delhi Police officials said DU authorities sought their assistance in getting the premises vacated, following which “some SFI/AISA protesters were removed from outside the VC office”. Police said that students were released once the premises were vacated.

AISA has given a call for a chakka jam protest on Tuesday. “Students were met by the DU proctor who assured that notice for reopening will come up in the evening, but later turned down her promise and said it will take a week. Students will not tolerate the lies of the administration. We have resolved that our movement will continue until the notice comes,” AISA said in a statement.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) units at various DU colleges also submitted a memorandum to heads of colleges on Monday to press for re-opening the varsity. ABVP has also given a call for a sit-in protest against the DU administration on Tuesday.

DU’s dean of colleges Balaram Pani said that the varsity was in the process of working out the modalities of reopening. “We are deliberating upon the issue of reopening. Since DU has a large number of outstation students, we need to make proper arrangements before reopening the university. We cannot just reopen the university without proper preparations. The university will definitely open once all modalities are finalised; the decision will be student-centric,” said Pani.

Delays in other varsities too

Meanwhile, at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), though the administration issued orders on Sunday directing resumption of offline classes, students said they were awaiting further instructions from their respective centres.

In its order, the JNU administration had directed all deans, chairpersons of various schools and special centres to resume offline academic teaching and learning activities and open libraries for students, with effect from Monday.

Priyance Gautam (22), a final-year MA political science student at JNU, said, “We are waiting for directions from the centre. The centre will notify how classes will be conducted. We hope that offline classes are resumed on the campus soon since most of us are yet to meet our teachers or fellow students.”

Jamia Millia Islamia PRO Ahmed Azeem said that the varsity will take a call on reopening in an upcoming meeting. “In a day or two, deans of the university will meet and the issue of reopening of the campus will be taken up for discussion,” said Azeem.

Ambedkar University Delhi reopened on Monday for offline classes and an official from its public relations office said attendance was tepid on the first day.

Delhi Technological University will resume offline classes from Tuesday.