MEMBERS OF the Forum of Indians against Reservation (FIR) handed over a memorandum to State Irrigation Minister Ashok Bajpai on Sunday, who was in the city to take part in a convocation ceremony.
A group of FIR met Bajpai and after handing over an anti-reservation memorandum, they asked him to contemplate over suppressing talent on the pretext of increasing quota in higher education. Ten new members of FIR on Sunday sat on a relay hunger strike on the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur premises. FIR members have been sitting on a relay hunger strike against the government-proposed quota hike. On Sunday evening FIR members held a condolence meeting at the Student Activity Centre (SAC) on the IIT-K premises for the untimely demise of HBTI student Shivendra Pratap Mal and prayed for the departed soul.
Meanwhile, in what could be described as a shot in the arm, FIR has been getting overwhelming response from various eminent persons in society in their protest against reservation. An FIR member said, “Besides support from medicos and Harcourtians, we are being given moral support from several other premier associations and organisations in the city.”
With the IIT-K convocation going to be held on Monday and the chief guest being central minister Kapil Sibbal, FIR members stayed busy on Sunday, contemplating a decent way to make their anti-reservation protest felt before the minister.
{{/usCountry}}With the IIT-K convocation going to be held on Monday and the chief guest being central minister Kapil Sibbal, FIR members stayed busy on Sunday, contemplating a decent way to make their anti-reservation protest felt before the minister.
{{/usCountry}}A member of FIR said, “We know that Sibal is the first minister who had spoken against reservation earlier but here at IIT-K, he is coming as a representative of the Government of India. Therefore, we would make him feel the anti-reservation heat here in the city.”
Meanwhile, at the GSVM Medical College, medicos have again begun their mass gathering campaign to mobilise maximum students for the anti-reservation stir.
Though medicos were expected to come back from the leave on June 1. But medicos are coming back to college in small fragments is proving as a hindrance in giving anti-reservation stir a momentum.
Talking to the Hindustan Times, a JR II seeking anonymity said, “The anti reservation strike would certainly gain momentum here on the medical college premises, like IIT-K but we are waiting for the second half of June as Para X 1 batch students have their home exams on June 13 and 14. After that we would stand with our striking counterparts in IIT-K without hampering health services.”