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Posturing, protest at IP varsity campus opening by Delhi LG and CM Kejriwal
The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University campus will serve as a key bridge for higher education in eastern Delhi.
Who inaugurated the East Delhi campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) on Thursday afternoon? Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena? Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal? Both of the above?
Read here: ‘If slogans could improve education system…’: Kejriwal’s dig at university event
The answer to this multiple choice question remained unclear on Thursday, as press releases from both sides staked claim to the honour.
The campus that was inaugurated, however, marked an end to eight years of construction and will serve as a key bridge for higher education in eastern Delhi. Built for ₹388 crore over a 19-acre plot, the campus will accommodate 2,400 students.
But the inauguration event itself was overshadowed by the tug-of-war, yet another chapter in the seemingly unending tussle between the Capital’s two power centres, that played out in public in three parts – on the campus lawns, in the campus’s auditorium a few minutes later, and then on social media, cellphones and press rooms. To be sure, Thursday’s fracas was foreshadowed days earlier. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday said Kejriwal would helm the 11am event, a statement that the LG’s office refuted a day later, saying Saxena would .
Eventually, the LG attended as “chief guest” and Kejriwal as the “guest of honour”. Education minister Atishi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir, and local legislator OP Sharma (also from the BJP) were also present at the event.
On the campus lawns on a hot Thursday afternoon, just as the programme began, Saxena and Kejriwal moved together at the foot of the inauguration plaque as both sought to draw its curtains. Eventually, Saxena stood next to it and held the top of the drawstring, while Kejriwal stood to his left and held the bottom, to reveal a plaque that said,“Inaugurated by Chief Guest Shri Vinai KumarSaxena”.
Soon after, inside the auditorium, Saxena and Kejriwal were heckled during their respective 16- and 17-minute speeches.
Kejriwal, after speaking for four minutes, was halted by slogans in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Supporters and members of the AAP, in turn, raised slogans in favour of the Delhi chief minister.
The furore prompted Kejriwal to admonish both groups. “If slogans could improve the education system, then it would have already improved in the last 70 years,” he said. “I appeal to people from both parties to listen for five minutes. If you do not like my speech, then you can go ahead with the sloganeering later,” he added. The interruptions, however, continued intermittently throughout his speech.
Read here: Battle for inauguration: Delhi L-G, Kejriwal govt lock horns over GGSIPU campus
Later, he told the audience: “You may not like some of my ideas. You may feel what Kejriwal is saying is not true. I request you to let me finish… In a democracy, everyone has the right to speak. I am not abusing anyone, I am speaking sense. If you like it, fine, otherwise it’s alright.”
Saxena spoke next and was given a similar welcome. “I feel that there is a lack of education, which is why this is happening. We are in the temple of education and should maintain the sanctity of this place,” he said.
During the crux of their speeches, both hailed the subject of the contested inauguration – the campus itself.
Kejriwal said the campus will help economic development in the area.
“In the university, we will offer courses that are job-oriented, on subjects such as design, automation, artificial intelligence, innovation, machine learning, data management, and so on. These are areas in which there is a lot of demand in the job market,” Kejriwal said.
Meanwhile, Saxena said, “The purpose of real education is to inculcate values in a student and enable them to stand up to and fight against the darkness around them... If you raise your voice against corruption, people with vested interests will become your enemy.”
Thursday’s events are a reminder of the seemingly endless power tussle between the AAP government and the office of the LG, a back-and-forth that has resumed over the past few weeks after a brief pause last month, when the Supreme Court on May 12ruled that the elected administration was in charge of the Capital’s bureaucracy.
The Centre then effectively overruled this judgment with an ordinance that handed back this power to the LG. The AAP has challenged this ordinance in court and sought to rally support against it from Opposition parties, to keep it from being passed in the Rajya Sabha.
The unseemly tug-of-war showed that a protracted political tussle had now entered even the hallowed portals of a university; it offered a very poor example for students and teachers alike in what should have been a solemn moment to mark the inauguration of an educational institution, where learning should have been accorded priority.
The third part of the Thursday’s events unfolded on social media, and when media representatives from the LG’s office and the AAP issued press releases that took ownership of the inauguration ceremony.
A press release by Saxena’s office said: “The Lt. Governor of Delhi, VK Saxena today inaugurated the East Delhi Campus of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) at Surajmal Vihar.”
Around the same time, a press release from the AAP said: “CM Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University’s (IPU) highly anticipated East Campus in Surajmal Vihar today.”
In the evening, legislators from Delhi’s ruling party stepped this claim up a notch, arguing that Saxena “threatened” the vice-chancellor and university officials to “get himself invited” to the ceremony.
In a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat, Atishi said the LG was “desperate” to take credit for Kejriwal’s work.
“I want to ask the LG why he arrived to inaugurate a university campus whose construction was carried out by the Delhi government. The courses and the entire planning were done by the Delhi government? Why did you pressure the university and the education department and threaten them with suspension if they do not get him to inaugurate it?” she said.
In a separate press conference, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said: “This is the first time the LG of a state has forcibly inaugurated a university campus funded and built by the state government.”
Officials in the LG’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The BJP’s Delhi unit hit back at the AAP.
“It was sad to see that Atishi only does politics of illusion and lies. The words with which she is addressing the LG point to her lack of manners... You should be aware that in 1993, the then BJP government had established Guru Gobind Singh University in Delhi and the foundation stone of the East Delhi campus which was inaugurated today was also laid in 2014 by Union Minister Smriti Irani,” said Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva.
Read here: Delhi government, LG spar over inauguration of IP University's east campus
Officials aware of the matter said, “The plaque says the campus was inaugurated by the LG. The university also put out an advertisement in newspapers saying the LG will inaugurate the campus.”
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