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A seminar on the Ramjanmabhoomi issue by a VHP-sponsored outfit has no space on the Delhi University (DU) campus, where spaces should be open for inclusive and secular education
An all out bid to communalise the temperature on the Delhi University campus appeared afoot as “unidentified persons” climbed onto the Vivekananda statute situated in the midst of the Delhi University Campus and started painting it saffron! The incident, late on Wednesday (January 6, 2016) comes on the eve of a controversial ‘seminar’ on the Ramjanmabhoomi issue being hosted by the university’s Arts Faculty and conducted by an outfit linked to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Meanwhile in a strongly worded statement, as many as 15 organisations affiliated to the Left have come together to protest the two day seminar ‘to mobilize public opinion for the Ram Janambhoomi temple’ which is being organized by Arundhati Vashishtha Anusandhan Peeth in Arts Faculty, Delhi University starting on January 9, 2016.
The text of the protest statement:
It is very clear that the seminar is not an academic activity, as it is not organised by any department of the university but by an organisation that has a clear design and preconceived ideas about the outcome of such an exercise. This seminar must also be seen in connection with other recent reports from Ayodhya suggesting that truckloads of bricks have arrived there for the building of the temple. By holding this seminar in a premier central university, the RSS-VHP clearly intends to polarise the youth and create a divisive atmosphere.
Universities are supposed to be institutions that bring young people from all backgrounds, including all faiths, together in the common endeavour of the pursuit of knowledge. Universities should be spaces for secular education. The holding of a seminar on such a nationally divisive issue is a blatant misuse of the University. We may recall the recent controversies around moves to hold programmes in JNU and Allahabad University with Ramdev and Yogi Adityanath as participants. Both moves were successfully resisted by students and the University as a space open to all was defended.
It is shameful that the DU administration has given permission to hold such a programme. The same administration continuously denied university spaces to the democratically elected bodies to organize meetings and programmes. In allowing this divisive and communal programme, the University administration has shown disrespect to the academic environment of the University. The DU administration is bending backwards to please the BJP-led Government.
It is deplorable that the Government is imposing academic dilution on the public funded universities through hurriedly imposed programmes like CBCS and starving them through fund cuts on one hand and on the other damaging the academic environment in universities by pushing their divisive agenda. We demand that permission for the conduct of this programme be withdrawn forthwith. We also call upon the university community and citizens to resist the attempts by the RSS-VHP to spread communal disharmony through such programmes.
The statement has been signed by All India Democratic Students Organisation
All India Students Association, All India Students Federation, Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch, Common Teachers Forum, Disha, Democratic Students' Union, Democratic Teachers' Front, Janwadi Shikshak Manch, Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, North-East Forum for International Solidarity, Nowruz, Parivartankami Chhatra Sanghtan (PACHHAS) and the Students' Federation of India.
Incidentally the outfit that has been permitted by the Arts faculty to organise the seminar, Arundhati Vashishtha Anusandhan Peeth, is a research organisation founded by late VHP leader Ashok Singhal of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). The attempt at painting saffron Vivekananda comes two days before. DCP (north) Madhur Verma told sections of the media that, “..the patrolling staff spotted some students painting the statue. They immediately apprehended those persons and informed the university faculty. The proctors and senior security staff of DU arrived and the students were handed over to them. Since no complaint was given by the university administration, no action has been taken against them”
According to eyewitnesses, the incident took place at about 8.30 pm. Five persons climbed on top of the black statue with the help of ladders, with paint cans and brushes in hand, and began painting the statue in saffron colour.