Image credit:  Committee of Suspended Students for Social Justice/Facebook

Research scholar Anil Kumar* cried at the viva voce, an oral examination, that he sat for at Hyderabad Central University in 2014. Not because he was not proficient in the subject he was being quizzed on, but because of the sheer contempt he felt in the interviewer’s voice.

Kumar had submitted a research proposal for a PhD in linguistics to the university’s interview panel.

“An interview panel member looked at my MPhil thesis, made a mocking face and threw it on the table,” he said.

The proposal was written in Hindi.

“That turned the panel against me because till then, I had studied only in Hindi medium,” Kumar claimed.

Kumar had topped the national-level written test, in English, and not just among Scheduled Caste applicants.

Merit was not the issue, he said.

Such experiences are the primary reason why students across India’s university campuses are staunchly opposed to a notification from the University Grants Commission, the country’s higher education regulator, which changes the rules for admission into research programmes. A student from New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University even went on a hunger strike against the policy on the weekend, before being rushed to hospital by the police on Monday.

According to the notification, issued last May, selections to research programmes will now be based solely on how applicants perform during the interview. Prior to this, most universities did not follow a uniform policy for admissions to MPhil and PhD research programmes. While some considered a formula that took into account the student’s performance both in an entrance test and interview, a few had a test-only policy.

But with the notification, the entrance tests for MPhil and PhDs across India have been turned into qualifying ones. This rule is something all universities – central and state – will have to adopt.

Critics say the notification will lead to further discrimination of students who come from socially and economically marginalised backgrounds. Students believe that the new rules will put those who do not fit the profile they think expert panels favour – proficient in English, neat, confident – at a great disadvantage.

Last month, Jawaharlal Nehru University passed the notification at an academic council meeting, which was disrupted by students, nine of whom have been suspended. On January 3, its executive council adopted the notification.

One of the suspended students, Dileep Yadav, a final year PhD scholar, went on hunger strike, demanding that the administration nullify the decision.
 

New admission policy

So far, the most common practice in universities was to take into account a student’s performance in the entrance test and interview. The formula varied. For instance, at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Central University of Gujarat, the entrance test was given a 70% weightage and the interview 30%. For an applicant to make the merit list, a composite of marks in this ratio was considered.

Now, students who have experienced interviews like Kumar’s say that the new rule expands the scope for bias.

The Central University of Gujarat, which implemented the new policy last year, has already been taken to court on the issue.

“Some felt they were rejected because of the change and have gone to court,” said PhD student Vikas Pathe.
 

Complaints of bias

Everyone has a viva story – whether during admissions or during regular evaluation.

In 2008, Ramnaresh Ram was doing an MA in Hindi from Allahabad University when he appeared for a mandatory viva examination before an examiner from Benares Hindu University.

“They could tell I was from a Scheduled Caste from my name,” he said. “I was asked questions about the Bahujan Samaj Party, whether I supported them. The discussion, irrelevant to my coursework, shocked and embarrassed me. I lost confidence.”
Suneeta, a PhD student from Delhi University, said that selection boards do not understand the battles students like her fight to just get to the interview room.

“Where I come from – Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh – families do not send girls to school,” said Suneeta.

She said that she had few complaints against Delhi University but added that she faced the “language barrier” during her viva at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2010.
 

Subtle discrimination

In 2011, Anubhuti Agnes Bara and Mulayam Singh both made it into Jawaharlal Nehru University’s MPhil programme – but only just.

Bara, who studies in the Hindi department, stood second in the written test, scoring 54 out of 70. Singh, in the history department, got a respectable 48. In the interview, which Bara thought had gone well, she got eight out of 30. Singh got three.
“I was asked my full name,” said Singh. “They probably wanted to know if I am a Yadav.”

The disparity between written test and viva scores of some admission applicants in the university was spotted by the now-disbanded All India Backward Students’ Forum. The group obtained the test-interview break-up for several rounds of admissions using Right to Information applications, and detected that the gap was wider in case of reserved-category candidates. It cited this as proof of discrimination.

“No one will call you a chamaar,” said PhD student Prashant Kumar, referring to the pejorative for some members of the Scheduled Caste. “It is far more subtle. On the written test, there’s just a number. When the candidate appears for the interview, you can guess their background from skin colour, dress, English [speaking skills], and even etiquette. It is not just reserved category candidates who suffer but the poor in general.”

The reason for the alleged downgrading is to keep reserved-category candidates whose composite score was high enough to meet general category requirements from claiming an unreserved seat, said Bara. “Those [general category seats] are open to all, but are often treated as reserved for upper castes,” she said.
 

Multiple committees

The demand to reduce the importance given to the viva component is a longstanding one.

Since 2012, the Jawaharlal Nehru University administration has formed three committees to look into allegations of discrimination in viva scores.

The first, formed in 2012, analysed data from 2007 to 2011, and observed in its report that the gap in performance between general and reserved category students was wider in the case of viva-voce than the written test.

The second, in 2014, led by Sukhadeo Thorat of the Indian Council for Social Science Research, found some differences too.

Students thought their demands would finally be met when the last committee, led by Abdul Nafey, from Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of International Studies, recommended a reduction of marks allocated to viva to 15 from 30 last year.

But the university’s adoption of the University Grants Commission notification has put paid to any hope of that happening.

The minutes of a Nafey committee meeting say, “Data consistently indicate the pattern of difference in the written and the viva voce marks across all social categories which indicates discrimination.”
 

Assessing merit

Students in Jawaharlal Nehru University see as a betrayal the fact that many teachers, including those generally regarded as Left-leaning, or progressive, did not back their demand that the marks allocated to viva-voce be reduced.

A former student leader, who now teaches in college, pointed out that the weight given to viva in research admissions is “one of the very few issues on which students and teachers do not always agree”.

Determining merit once a student is out of the framework of a fixed curriculum and exams is difficult.

“The viva is to assess the viability of a research proposal,” said the teacher. “How will you do that through a written test?”

The Thorat Committee report began with this caveat: “This absence of relationship [between test and viva scores] is inherent in the very differences in the objectives as well as in the mode associated with the conduct of the two types of examinations.”
But as a Delhi University teacher pointed out, the University Grants Commission has framed some rules for faculty recruitment interviews.

“Now there are fixed parameters,” she said. “Interviewers have to state how much the candidate has scored against each. Why cannot a similar system be developed for admissions?”

* Name changed to protect the person’s identity.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

The post Why students are opposed to UGC’s new policy for admission into research programmes appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Shehla Rashid (AISA), Vice President JNUSU, speaks at a student protest, during the ‘Occupy UGC’ Movement

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The recent government constituted panel‘s (headed by former cabinet secretary T.S.R. Subramaniam) report on student politics is unconstitutional, highly regressive and politically motivated, and signals the upcoming onslaught of total commercialisation of education and imposition of Hindutva ideology in universities. The TSR Subramaniam Panel’s report is the logical follow up to the Birla Ambani report (which was submitted in 2000), following which student unions across the country were banned. The Birla Ambani report had lamented that student unions are not allowing commercialisation of education: we accept the charge and take pride in it! We believe that education should be a right of everyone, not a privilege of a handful of people.

After the report, tremendous restrictions were put on student union elections in the form of Lyngdoh Committee recommendations (2006), but students resolved not to give up, but to intensify the fight against imposition of austerity on education. Student groups over the past several years have resisted the commercialization and saffronisation of education and that is why the present government is fighting a proxy war against students. Students across the country are being targeted for democratically raising their voices. Interestingly, the only students organization which does not face any action is the perpetually violent ABVP, the student wing of the regressive RSS, whose members are well known for their rogue and abusive behaviour!

We warn the government not to engage in any measures to restrict political activity by students, as these will be in violation of Article 19 of the Constitution of India.

Student activism has made academic practices better and richer. JNU, HCU and FTII, for example, are some of the finest institutions of learning in the country. That is not “despite” student politics, but “because of” the progressive student politics of these campuses. Modiji has the luxury to tell us to leave studies and do politics. What does he have to say to those who will never be able to enter these educational institutions, due to the policies of UPA & NDA governments? It is for those that we fight, and will continue to.

The TSR Subramaniam panel asks for restrictions to be placed on student groups organized along identitarian lines.  In the garb of banning student groups based ‘on caste and religion’, the government (if it acts on these recommendations) will end up terrorising student groups of minority and Dalit, communities and not upper-caste Hindu supremacist organisations such as ABVP which openly engage in anti-women, anti-Dalit and anti-minority propaganda. It is shocking that the government is mulling interference at such deep level in campuses. It appears that the people on the panel do not have knowledge of the Indian Constitution which empowers all citizen groups to form unions and associations. Students are no different, and have the right to form associations and unions. The fact that students do not like Modi and Modi doesn’t like students can’t be used to curb our voices.

It is ridiculous to ask students to leave studies to do politics. (Meaning, as the minister Venkaiah Naidu said recently, ‘If students want to do politics, they should stop studying, quit universities, and then join politics’: Kafila).

When the BJP comes to seek votes of students, does it ask us to leave studies? Then why does it get threatened when we intervene in politics? What comes next? Will they ask farmers to leave agriculture and then come to politics? Why don’t they ask the Yogis, Sadhus and Sadhvis in their party to leave religion and then come to politics? Why don’t they ask lawyers in their party to leave advocacy and then come to politics? Most of all, why don’t they ask Gajendra Chauhan to leave BJP and then run the FTII? It is ironic that a government which has flooded educational institutions with mediocre saffron puppets has the audacity to lecture students on political neutrality! The govt should stop making a joke of itself and stop interfering in campuses. The ruling party representatives are there in the campuses and are active in student politics, and should be enough to carry the ruling party ideology. The increasing isolation of ABVP on campuses is causing the govt so much anxiety that they are desperate to politically intervene in one way or the other, to save the sinking ship of the ABVP.

This report goes on to imagine ghosts and makes ridiculous statements to the effect that, students stay in hostels for several years for political motives! On the contrary, it’s when students don’t get hostels and can’t pay the shockingly high rents outside campuses, that they join the fight against budget cuts in education. Why shouldn’t a student get a hostel for the entire duration of the study? What is ABVP’s response on this shameful denial of hostel facilities? Weren’t they screaming in student Union elections that they will ask their govt to build more hostels? Why is their government targeting students who are lucky enough to get hostels?

In addition to all this semi-literate chatter, the committee suddenly says that Yoga must be encouraged in campuses. While we have no problem with Yoga, why is the government politicising Yoga? The only time in the history of mankind when Yoga got negative publicity is when Narendra Modi tried to forcibly impose it on people and politicise it. What does Yoga have to do with a report on student politics? Why make it sound as if students need a rehab? There are many tribal practices which are very good for health. Why doesn’t the govt include those too in this trashy report?

This report is a deliberate provocation to instigate the next phase of unrest on campuses. This will be followed by further fee hike and commercialisation of education, reduction of scholarships, aggressive Hindutva activities and, by declaring students as violent, it already lays out the justification for the use of institutional violence on them in case they protest, just like in the case of Rohith Vemula, and now JNU, BHU, AMU, MANUU, Guwahati University, etc.

The Modi government must stop attacking the opposition and start working now. It has been two years of total failure of the government. They can’t silence people who protest against the government’s failures. We are also elected representatives, and in addition to fighting state repression, we are also working for students. If Modi needs some lessons in progressive politics, he can come to JNU. JNU Students’ Union can be a model for him. We deliver and struggle for most things that we declare on our election manifesto. We don’t go around attacking the opposition, beating them up, abusing them on social media, etc. We work. We invite all BJP persons for lessons in progressive politics from student representatives.

Shehla Rashid is a student at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (JNU) and the Vice President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU). She is an activist with the All India Students Association (AISA).

This text is a version of what was first posted as a status update on Shehla Rashid’s Facebook Page. 
 

The post Resist Modi Regime’s Assault on Students Through Subramaniam Panel Report on Student Politics: Shehla Rashid appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 

FREE SPEECH IN 2016: FIRST QUARTER REPORT 

The first quarter of this year has been a significant one for issues related to free speech as this stody by The Hoot shows

Apart from the turbulence in February over the sedition cases filed at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the arrests of students, and the allegations regarding doctored videos, the period saw an overall increase in the number of sedition cases filed, recorded the murder of one journalist, saw increases in attacks on journalists and media property, saw a number of defamation cases filed against the media and the political class, and logged many instances of censorship of different kinds, affecting the media, the arts, as well as ordinary citizens.

This period also saw significant legal developments which affect the climate for free speech, at the level of the supreme court and the high courts.
 
Highlights

• Law of sedition gets a fresh lease of life – 11 new cases filed
• Fourteen attacks, two arrests and seven threats affect press freedom, one journalist murdered.
• Seventeen cases of censorship including internet blocks.
• Six defamation notices sent to the media by the Tamil Nadu government or its ministers in 2016.
• Fourteen defamation suits  filed involving politicians, six legal notices sent.
• Supreme Court says mobile internet can be banned under section 144 of the CrPC
• Supreme Court stays proceedings initiated by UP Assembly on a privilege notice against the editorial management of India Today.
• Government announces scanning of all media to monitor negative news.
• Government appoints panel to re-examine film censorship. 
   

The table below illustrates how much free speech became a challenge in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same quarter in two previous years. 
Comparative table

For details of previous years see here
 
SEDITION
Nationwide exposure for the sedition cases filed at Jawaharlal Nehru University obscures the fact that cases under this archaic law were also filed elsewhere in the country in the first months of this year, including four cases in Bihar and one each in Haryana and Kerala.

Fresh cases filed
The first quarter of 2016 gave a fresh lease of life to the law on sedition after police stations registered cases under it all over the  country. Eleven cases were filed in different parts of the country, one of which named nine persons. One case was filed in January, seven in February, and three in March. A total of 19 individuals were named in these cases, including 10 politicians, and the first FIR in the JNU case under the sedition law (Section of 124 A of the Indian Penal Code) was against unknown persons.

JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and AIMM leader Asaduddin Owaisi had multiple cases filed against them, in different parts of the country. Others charged included four other JNU students, a Kerala youth for a post on Facebook about an NSG commando killed in Pathankot, an alleged Naxalite in Bihar, former Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani, former Haryana CM Hooda’s aide, and politicians across the spectrum  in relation to the events in JNU ranging from Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal  and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury  to Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi (as mentioned earlier), Anand Sharma and others.

Sedition – fresh cases

• Kerala man charged with sedition for insulting Pathankot martyr 2016-01-06
• Sedition charges on Manshyam 2016-02-09
• Govt. acts tough, JNU student leader charged with sedition 2016-02-13
• Delhi Police register sedition case in connection with Afzal Guru event at JNU 2016-02-12
• SAR Geelani booked for sedition in Press Club of India incident  2016-02-15
• Sedition complaints filed against Rahul, Congress hits out at BJP 2016-02-18
• Jat violence: Sedition charge slapped on Hooda’s aide by Haryana police 2016-02-25
• JNU Row: Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal Among 9 Booked For Sedition 2016-02-29
• Sedition case against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in Patna court 2016-03-14
• Two Cases Filed Against Owaisi in Bihar 2016-03-18
   

Sedition chargesheets filed

• Chargesheets in sedition cases  were filed  in January against Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leaders including Hardik Patel in Ahmedabad.
  Charge sheet filed against Hardik Patel in second sedition case  2016-01-19
   

Sedition case dismissed

• Five men arrested in 2007 on charges of sedition were acquitted by a special court in Lucknow in  January.
  Five acquitted of sedition charges,  2016-01-15

 
MURDER, ARRESTS, ATTACKS AND THREATS
Three months into 2016 and it has already been a rough year for journalists in the country: one journalist murdered, two arrested, 14 attacks on media personnel and their equipment, and one case of a journalist being held hostage in Allahabad. 
Reporter Karun Mishra, Bureau Chief of Jan Sandesh Times was shot dead in Sultanpur in mid-February. 

Two journalists were arrested in March in Chattisgarh. 

A freelance journalist in Delhi was picked up and summoned to a police station on subsequent days but not formally arrested. 

The incidents at JNU saw nine journalists being  questioned by police.
 
Deaths 1 

• Another Journalist Killed In Uttar Pradesh Opposition Slams Government 2016-02-14

 Arrests 2

• Another journalist held in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar  2016-03-27
• Chhattisgarh: Journalist arrested for allegedly taking a dig at a cop on WhatsApp 2016-03-23
   

Attacks  14 and one case of a journalist  being held hostage.

• Attack on journalists in Chennai: DMDK MLA, 18 others arrested 2016-01-01
• Journalist attacked for publishing news in Odisha’sAul 2016-01-06
• Man held for brutal attack on scribes  2016-01-12
• SiddharthVaradarajan held hostage in Allahabad at VC's office by ABVP 2016-01-20
• Journalist RevatiLaul Attacked Allegedly By Gujarat Riots Convict 2016-01-21
• Journalist`s house attacked in Nalanda 2016-01-21
• Journalist attacked in Odisha capital city 2016-01-23
• PSOs of JMC Commissioner snatch journalist’s camera 2016-01-28
• Police Refuse to File FIR After Attack on Journalist in Chattisgarh 2016-02-08
• Journalists attacked by SP goons 2016-02-08
• 'I kept telling them I'm a journalist but they kept beating me': Photographer beaten at Delhi protest 2016-02-10
• Students, journos assaulted near Delhi court hearing JNU sedition case 2016-02-16
• JNU row: Lawyers scuffle, attack journalist again at Patiala House court 2016-02-17
• 2 detained for attacking media vans  2016-03-01
• Badal bus staff ‘attack’ reporter with English daily  2016-03-26
   

Threats 7

• Freelance journalist questioned over writings on tribals 2016-01-13
• Mumbai Police registers case against Twitter user for threatening to rape woman journalist 2016-02-19
• Odisha chief of ABVP booked for ‘verbal abuse’ of mediapersons 2016-02-22
• TV news anchor gets 2,000 threat calls after discussion on Mahishasur Jayanti, 5 arrested 2016-03-01
• Death threats for Dutt 2016-03-05
• BMS worker arrested for ‘threatening’ TV anchor Sooryakumar 2016-03-07
• 'Not a single journalist working without fear or pressure': Editors Guild on Bastar 2016-03-30

CENSORSHIP
Censorship takes many forms, and is triggered by a variety of agents. 

The Indian Express reported on March 19 that the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL), which operates under the Ministry of Human Resources Development, has introduced a form “which requires authors of books NCPUL acquires annually to declare that the content will not be against the government or the country.”  The paper said that the form, received by several Urdu writers and editors over the past few months, also asks authors to provide signatures of two witnesses.

Meanwhile in Hyderabad on the same day the influential Islamic seminary Jamia Nizamia issued a fatwa declaring that "reason" and Islamic "faith" do not allow Muslims to chant the slogan 'Bharat Mata ki jai'.  Both developments place restrictions on freedom of  speech and expression.
In January in Kamrup in Assam “as part of the strict enforcement of the Government Official Language Act” the district administration decreed that business and commercial establishments would have to use Assamese as the primary language in signage and hoardings. Shops are no longer free to display their names in a language of their choice.  The order said action would  be taken against violators.

In the same month, ‘Comedy Nights’ actor Kiku Sharda was arrested, bailed out and then re-arrested for mimicking Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in Haryana. 

On February 23 the participation of a Pakistani poet Abbas Tabish at a litfest, the Ajmer Literature Festival, was cancelled after right-wing groups warned of protests. The programme, called ‘Shayari: Sarhadke Par’ (Poetry beyond Borders), was organised by the Ajmer Literary Society.
Electronic censorship has also been thriving. There were 8 cases in 3 months. Blocks were imposed both by governments (Haryana and Gujarat) and private sector agencies, including Google, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

• Google blocks J&K govt’s e-mail accounts, info flow affected 2016-01-06
• Fans shocked as YouTube blocks MS’ Vishnu Sahasranamam 2016-01-13
• Youth held in West Bengal for Facebook post ‘against TMC leader’ 2016-02-07
• Jat community agitation: Internet services blocked in Haryana after clash 2016-02-19
• To beat exam cheats, Gujarat to block mobile internet today 2016-02-28
• Instagram blocks pix in Kashmir 2016-02-28
• Internet services blocked in Rohtak as Haryana braces for Jat agitation 2016-03-18
• ‘Pakistan Ki Jai’ text on WhatsApp sends 2 Mangalore-based students to jail2016-03-25

Censorship of the arts added to the tally of censorship in this quarter.

• CBFC refuses to sanction censor certificate to Great Grand Masti  2016-01-28
• Now censor board wants cuts in Marathi play 2016-02-04
• Screening of film on Kashmir triggers row in IIT-Delhi 2016-02-9
• CBFC Mutes Words From Kannada Film, Faces Heat  2016-03-19 

There was one case of hacking related to the events at JNU.
Hackers deface JNU library website, threaten ‘traitors’ 2016-02-17 

Posts and messages on Facebook and WhatsApp caused violence.

• Kerala MP faces abuse over Facebook post on JNU sedition case 2016-02-17
• Communal violence in Badaun after Whatsapp message 2016-02-17
• Facebook post triggers violence in West Bengal 2016-03-03

DEFAMATION
Defamation cases against Media
Seven defamation notices were sent to the media in 2016, six from the Tamil Nadu government or its ministers and one from the Vidarbha Cricket Association.

• Tamil Nadu govt files defamation cases against Tamil and English newspapers 2016-01-04
• Minister sues Tamil weekly 2016-01-06
• Govt. files 4 defamation cases against Tamil weekly 2016-01-12
• VCA sends legal notice of defamation to Times of India 2016-01-13
• Ministers move defamation cases against Tamil weekly 2016-01-19
• Ministers move defamation cases against Tamil weekly 2016-01-19
• TN Government Files Defamation Complaint Against English Daily 2016-02-13
   

Defamation cases involving politicians
14 cases/suits filed, 6 legal notices sent.

• DDCA files defamation cases against Delhi CM ArvindKejriwal, seek Rs 2.5 crore 2016-01-10
• Arunachal CM Refutes NSCN-K Link, Files Defamation Suit 2016-01-11
• Majithia files defamation suit against AAP’s Sanjay Singh for ‘drug trader’ remark  2016-01-13
• Defamation case against 2 AAP leaders 2016-01-30
• Defamation notice against Babu 2016-02-01
• GJM general secy files Rs 5 cr defamation case against Chhetri 2016-02-03
• Defamation case against Kejriwal, Kirti Azad 2016-02-05
• Paddy scam: Bhupesh defamation notice against Akbar 2016-02-09
• Himanta Biswa Sarma files 100 crores Defamation Against Gogoi says he is not leaving BJP 2016-02-19
• Defamation suit against AIUDF Barpeta MLA 2016-02-22
• CM files defamation suit against Vijayakant 2016-02-23
• Tit for tat: ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy files defamation case against Jayalalithaa 2016-02-23
• Nepotism charge: Fadnavis sends defamation notice to Thakre 2016-02-26
• Defamation suit against Rahul in Kamrup (M) CJM court 2016-03-04
• Defamation cases against TNCC chief, MLA 2016-03-03
• RSS files defamation case against Rahul 2016-03-03
• CM Devendra Fadnavis sends defamation notice to Digvijaya Singh 2016-03-21
• Withdraw allegation, Karuna sends legal notice to Vaiko 2016-03-26
• DMK leader MK Stalin sends legal notice to Vaiko for defamation 2016-03-26

 
OTHER SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS RELATED TO FREE SPEECH
The courts batted both for and against free speech in the first three months of this year. While the Supreme Court’s staying of the UP assembly’s proceedings in a privilege notice against two TV channels, their journalists and their management was a heartening development, the same court upheld the banning of mobile internet under the CrPC though the petitioners had argued that mobile internet was only government by a special law like the Telegraph Act.
 

• Shyam Benegal to head panel to revamp Censor Board 2016-01-02
• Trailer no basis to stop film’s release: Court  2016-02-18
• Govt. Plans Massive Surveillance of Media; All Negative News To Be Severely Monitored 2016-02-25
• Mobile Internet can be banned under S. 144 CrPC, says Supreme Court2016-02-11
• SC stays UP Assembly proceedings against TV channel 2016-03-05
   

Note: We wish to clarify that estimates in this report are likely to be conservative figures based on available information. Since we do not monitor all regional media actual free speech related occurances could be higher.

 Courtesy: TheHoot.org
 

The post Attacks on Free speech Soar in the First Quarter of 2016 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Since the Narendra Modi Government has taken its charge, many students of this country are in great trouble. It’s not just because of the widely discussed issues like suicide of Rohith Vemula at UoH and incarceration of Kanhaiya Kumar and his friends at JNU. Apart from these well publicised instances of regime backed atrocities – there are several other issues like fund cuts in education and attempts at saffronisation of higher education by appointing people with RSS backgrounds in important positions are some significant matters which many are bothered about.

Further, one of the serious matters which directly affecting the researchers is fellowship. The debates regarding UGC Non Net Fellowship and UGC’s messing up with it is well known. After several protests throughout the country, the HRD Ministry did set up a committee. The report of the committee was supposed to come in December but researchers are still waiting for the same. The ‘unqualified’ humbug minister seems to be underperformer too. Further, many ongoing fellowship schemes are also in great danger since many of them are being mismanaged in the last two years. The late disbursement system and several months without any fellowships are plaguing the students.

Fellowship schemes like MANF, RGNF and so on are dysfunctional for a long time. Last year some students did visit to UGC and other concerned ministries and were promised that the schemes will run as per law thenceforth, but unfortunately it did not happen. As of now thousand scholars of the country have not received their fellowship for many months. For example the scholars under the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) scheme for minority students are without fellowship from last October – November. Other schemes like RGNF SC, RGNF ST, RGNF OBC and so on are also running late.
Most unfortunately fellowship for disabled students has not been released since last July. In these circumstances these research scholars are in great distress.

This repeated late disbursement of fellowships affect thousands of research scholars of the country. Most of the scholars solely depend on fellowship for their needs. Thus, if the fellowship amount is not credited on time, it becomes very difficult to sustain. Researchers literally witness times when they do not have money to support ourselves. Students feel really dejected that they have been pushed down to the level of beggars who have to petition every month for what rightfully deserve as legal entitlements as research scholars. Energy and time are lost much in this process which can otherwise be utilized for fruitful research. Researchers are not even able to concentrate on research, as are constantly worried about the lack of money for basic needs.

Now, whom to blame for all this? Is the assigned Canara Bank and the system or the bureaucracy of UGC responsible? Are the ministries responsible or the entire Govt. itself? Students call and beg to Canara Bank, UGC and Ministries almost every day for the pending money they deserve and when the power leaves them baffled with a mutual blame game, they do not know what to do to get the problem resolved. Researchers wait almost endlessly every month but the hostel authorities will not wait for the mess fees to be remitted; the university authorities will not wait for the tuition fees to be paid; the labs cannot wait for the essential chemicals, tools and instruments to be used from time to time.

This might sound little emotional but it’s the ground reality of the researchers in India. Sometime many wonder and regret of the choice of research over other promising career which would have at least not left them in a situation like this. Please imagine when the employees don’t get salary during the first week of the month. Students appeal not punish them more for choosing to face the challenges of a career in research to contribute to the academic development of the country. Here, it is to be noted that one of the significant reasons mentioned by Rohith Vemula in the tract going around as his ‘suicide note’ for his fatal decision was monetary problems. His pending fellowship was finally disbursed after his death. We would like to ask whether the Ministries, the UGC and the other powers that be whether they want mass suicides to occur across educational campuses of the country.

Thus, we request the concerned authorities at UGC, at various ministries, and power holders at the Govt. to look into the pathetic situation and do the needful at the earliest to resolve the late disbursement of our fellowships. Please act immediately to solve our problem; please give us our monthly fellowship at least within the first week of every month; please let us do our work peacefully and properly.

The post Research Scholars of India Are Under Threat: Appeal by the UGC Fellowships Forum appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On 9th December, 2015 the OccupyUGC protestors were lathi charged and water cannoned on their march to the Parliament. The students have been protesting in front of the UGC office in Delhi since 21st October, 2015 against the move to end the Non-NET fellowships for research students.  See https://www.sabrangindia.in/ann/where-news-peaceful-students-protest-faces-police-brutality-delhi

A protest is taking place in the heart of the capital to save what students believe is the future of higher education in the country. Their vigil in front of the University Grants Commission office has lasted more than two months but has received scant media attention, except when the Delhi Police brought down lathis and water cannons on the protesting students. The behaviour of the police with women students was nothing short of appalling. Faced with media indifference and public disinterest, a group named The Media Collective has created a video explaining the protest and reasons behind it: the manner in which India’s higher education system is on the verge of dramatic change, and why the issues raised by the OccupyUGC movement are of great importance.

On January 4, two days ago, the protest entered its 75th day. The vigil outside the UGC started was started by students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia and Ambedkar University against the UGC’s decision to roll back the stipend due to all Central university MPhil and PhD scholars. The widespread indignation and angry protests led the HRD ministry to step in and stop the roll-back. However, the ministry also decided to set up a review committee to give these scholarships only to scholars with ‘merit’, ignoring their already established worth that comes with getting through a tough admission process. But as the video produced by The Media Collective) argues, this ‘review’ process is just the tip of the iceberg. Rather than a fundamental right available for all, education has become a commodity for sale, its quantity, quality and value decided by trade negotiators at the World Trade Organisation.

The students involved in OccupyUGC have staunchly opposed the fallout of these talks, which they say could result in the withdrawal of all government support to Central universities, and financial assistance which is a lifeline for thousands of scholars from varied socio-economic background. Since slogans  filled with acronym,' WTO, GATS,' etc.seemed to make little impact, the Collective presents this video as a crash course on the crucial issues at stake.

Please also see
https://www.sabrangindia.in/campaigns/occupy-ugc-students-march-parliament-9th-december-100pm-ugc
https://www.sabrangindia.in/campaigns/occupy-ugc-protest-march-dilli-chalo
https://www.sabrangindia.in/ann/all-india-campaign-arrest-governments-attempt-privatise-and-commercialise-higher-education

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