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DU rejects Rahul Gandhi’s claims of ‘caste bias’, says admissions conducted through CUET
Delhi University rejected Rahul Gandhi's claim that interviews eliminate students from marginalized groups, stating admissions are based on CUET scores, not interviews.
New Delhi: The Delhi University (DU) on Saturday rejected the leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi’s claim of interviews being used as a “tool to eliminate students” from Dalits, backward castes, Adivasis, and other minorities, saying that the university admits students to undergraduate and master’s courses based on CUET scores, not interviews.
“The university admits students primarily based on the CUET scores, and the standard admission process does not mandate interviews for most undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. If the leader of the opposition was referring to recruitments (such as faculty positions), the university in the recent past has recruited thousands of teachers across all categories,” DU said in a post on X.
The university said it strongly objects to such comments as they create a non-conducive environment.
While addressing a gathering at an event titled “Samvidhan Sammelan” in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday, Gandhi alleged that Dalits, backward castes, Adivasis, and other minorities remain underrepresented in government and private sectors and named DU, claiming that interviews are often used as a “mechanism to reject candidates based on their caste”.
“If we look at Indian institutions today – the judiciary, ministerial positions, bureaucracy, education system, and corporate – people belonging to the Dalit community, backward castes, Adivasis, and other minorities are highly underrepresented. I went to Delhi University... there, interviews are used as a tool to eliminate candidates based on caste,” Gandhi said.
In his address, however, he did not specify the level at which he was referring to this practice – whether in undergraduate, master’s, PhD, or teaching-level selections.
