JOIN USDU babus locked out by students over attendance
Members of the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad locked out Delhi University officials on Wednesday, while demanding the university to provide admit cards to students who were not allowed to write exams due to falling short of the required attendance.
Forcing DU officials to bask in the winter sun for a good two hours, the ABVP students led by Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) vice president Parvesh Malik, sealed the gate of the University Conference Centre that houses the office of the dean of students’ welfare.
“Our demands are legitimate. They have no right to sit in their plush offices if they can’t listen to genuine concerns of students,” Malik said.
He said he had asked officials to vacate the building before enforcing the lockout at 12.30 pm.
The ABVP members were protesting against DU’s move to not give admit cards to some students of Zakhir Hussain College.
“Students were lathicharged on Tuesday by the college authorities when they requested to be given admit cards. They are short on attendance, but the university should not play with their future,” DUSU president Mohit Nagar said.
According to the ABVP-led students’ union, Zakhir Hussain College should have asked students to sign a bond, stating that they will make up for the short attendance.
DU officials who were forced out on the street had to wait haplessly for students to open the gate. “It was a ridiculous situation. They stalled all our work for two hours,” said an official of the dean of students’ welfare office, who did not wish to be identified. “They are students even if they are part of a union, and they should not behave like goons. They should remember that.”
The official said that a few women officials, who were confined inside the building, were continuously calling ABVP members on phone to ask them to open the gate. Another DU official, who was stranded behind the gate, said the student party is setting a bad precedent. “They must stop goonda raj on campus,” he said.
ABVP national secretary Rohit Chahal said, “The office was opened only after we got an assurance from the dean of students’ welfare. He told that students who were short on attendance because of genuine reasons will be given admit cards.”