The People’s Commission on Shrinking Democratic Space (PCSDS) has strongly condemns the brutal actions of Delhi Police on peacefully protesting students, teachers, academics and journalists during a rally in New Delhi on March 23, 2018. The PCSDS has demanded that all FIRs registered against the students are immediately withdrawn, commence prosecution proceedings on the police personnel responsible for the assault on students, teachers and journalists and immediate suspension and arrest of Professor Atul Johri. Further, the platform urges all the concerned in the civil society to support and join the People’s March on March 28, 2018, called by Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) and Federation of Central Universities’ Teachers’ Associations (FEDCUTA).
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) and the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) had called for a march from the JNU campus to Parliament Street demanding suspension of Professor Atul Johri and legal action against him who has been accused by eight students of JNU of sexual harassment. The march was also against the recent announcement of autonomy of several universities directed towards privatisation of educational institutionsand the non-implementation of the reservation policy. With globalisation, the focus of education from its primary purpose of shaping active citizenry has been degenerated to that of building up a workforce that caters to the requirements of a market-based economy. The process of privatisation of education made it imperative to dismantle the state funded public education systems wiping out the basis of a welfare state.
The march was participated by thousands of students and teachers from JNU andother universities and colleges in Delhi and several others. The peaceful marchproceededfrom the JNU campus to the Parliament Street but was stopped near INA Marketby a posse of Delhi Police personnel.The roads were barricaded and the march wasn’t allowed to proceed. The Delhi Police used force including water cannon, lathi charge, deliberate physical and sexual assaulton women and journalists. Many students were detained at the Defence Colony police station. Actions by the police is in violation of fundamental right to peaceful assembly guaranteed by Article 19 of the Indian Constitution,recognised as an integral part and fabric of the Indian democracy. The State this time again has left no stone unturned in silencing voices demanding justice and asserting rights and rather created a negative perception of the students’ movements by spreading false propaganda through the corporate media.
While there was a brutal assault by Delhi Police on the peaceful march, students at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai and other campuses have been protesting for now over a month. They are protesting against the recent decisions of the TISS administration to increase the fees to several folds and withdrawal of fee waivers to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Caste – NonCreamy Layer (OBC-NC) students availing Government of India Post Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS).PCSDS strongly condemns the insensitivity of the TISS administration. The TISS administration must immediately respond to pertinent questions raised by students regarding scholarships and the use of scholarship funds from 2012-17. The TISS administration should clearly explain the steps taken to ensure that students from SC, ST and OBC-NC communities are ensured their constitutional guarantees and not use the existing deficiencies as a smokescreen to further corporatisation and pushing aside the primary purpose of education from free, rational and critical thinking.
PCSDS extends its support and solidarity with the students of Assam Women’s University (AWU) who are on a hunger-strike for the past four days against the decision of the Assam Government to downgrade the university to a technical institute. AWU being the only women’s university in the state of Assam and in the North-Eastern Region, the students are protesting to ensure the university status for AWU continues.
It is the centres of higher learning in India that have become the battleground for the foundation of Indian democracy and all it stands for. The government is engaged in constant attacks on students, teachers, employees, intellectuals, university autonomy and academic freedom across India. Aggressively pursuing its right wing authoritarian agenda, it has attacked democratic voices from India’s educational institutes.The recent events that have unfolded under the new regime, clearly indicate that the state’s intention to destroy centres of higher education to thwart intellectual oppositions.