DUSU office sealed

NEW DELHI: The movement against the four-year undergraduate programme is becoming highly politicized. With the DU administration coming down hard on "former" DUSU joint secretary Raju Rawat for smearing shoe polish on the face of South Campus director Umesh Rai by rusticating him and sealing the DUSU office, the student body has alleged that it is acting in an authoritarian manner as it has no right to take these steps without an inquiry.
ABVP, meanwhile, has threatened to intensify the movement and, with the Left, AAP and BJP all opposing FYUP, DU is set to witness protests on an unprecedentedly large scale during the forthcoming admission season. Slamming the university's alleged double standards, ABVP national secretary Rohit Chahal said, "When former DUSU president Arun Hooda slapped a law faculty teacher, the university administration looked the other way as he is from NSUI.
DU is trying to clamp down on the student movement. But ABVP will fight to the bitter end. The video proves there was no physical assault."
DUSU president Aman Awana, meanwhile, condemned the incident but also flayed the administration. but attacked the university administration for vitiating the atmosphere on the campus. "Blackening the face of a university official is condemnable. This should not have happened. But at the same time the attitude and actions of university officials, especially the vice-chancellor, is also to blame for provoking such harsh behaviour because the university has closed all opportunities for dialogue and discussion on their grievances. It is shameful that the university has sealed DUSU office as if all the office bearers were involved in such acts.
"Even if an office bearer of DUSU acts in an unlawful manner, the university cannot do the same. It should form an unbiased committee to inquire into the incident. Such undemocratic steps by DU in the past are the real reason behind the incidents happening today," Awana said.
Interestingly, while the teacher community is united in condemning the act, DU's press statement, which blamed a section of teachers for fomenting the assault, has divided the teaching community. Teachers have now started questioning the motive of the administration.
Naveen Gaur, who teaches physics at Dyal Singh College, said, "The action of the students involved should be condemned as has rightly been done by all. But some things do not match. The letter from SOL to DU clearly says that it was the student who called up the police. Why would a person who wants to create disturbance call police? The same letter from School of Open Learning says that police whisked the student away in five minutes. How come then that, within 35 minutes (the SOL letter says the student was there at 2.45pm and DU press release says he was in Director South Campus office at 4.25pm), police let the student who is creating disturbances walk free?"