DU teachers' union go on strike despite no work, no pay threat

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association went on a strike on Tuesday despite the university cracking the ‘no work, no pay’ whip.

The teachers’ body was protesting sacking of two Hindu College teachers who had come to blows in the college staff council.

“The Hindu College Governing Body’s intervention in the allegations of indiscipline made against two teachers Jai Inder Pal Singh (Physical Education) and Arvind Chaudhary (English) has been motivated and biased against them from the very beginning,” DUTA president Nandita Narain said.

“The college governing body did not allow the Staff Council’s Administrative Affairs and Grievance Committee to resolve the issue arising between teachers in any amicable manner whatsoever,” she said.

She said the teachers’ body had written to Vice-Chancellor Dinesh Singh asking him not to approve the governing body decision to terminate the services of the two teachers.
In 2012, too, teachers had sat on a strike following which their one day salary was cut. The teachers’ body is still trying to recover that money.

Teaching in many colleges took a hit because of the teachers’ strike.

Iyce Malhotra, a student of Kirori Mal College, said she had clue that the teachers were going on a protest.

“One of my friends called in the morning to say we have no classes today,” she said.
But the strike didn’t have the full backing of the teaching community. Deshbandhu College teachers, for instance, didn’t participate in Tuesday’s protest. Jesus and Mary College, Rajdhani College, Sri Venkateswara College and Maharaja Agrasen College held regular classes, barring few cancellations.

“Many came to the protest briefly, after registering their attendances,” one of the protesting teacher said.

The teachers’ union claimed their strike was legitimate since all appeals for justice made to the DU administration went unheeded.

“The DU vice chancellor has unleashed hostility against the DUTA and tried to prevent it from going on strike by falsely invoking the High Court’s interim order against strike passed in the specific case pertaining to the agitations against forced introduction of the semester system in DU,” the teacher body said in a press statement.