The imbroglio over the admission process in Delhi University (DU) on Tuesday got murkier after the University Grants Commission (UGC) fired a fresh salvo at the Delhi University at the instance of the HRD Ministry to roll back the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP).
As the face-off between both the academic organizations intensified, the HRD Ministry asked the UGC to issue separate letters to the affiliated DU colleges asking them to admit students under the conventional Three-Year Undergraduate Programme (TYUP).
A UGC Press note which was issued by the HRD Ministry late in the evening also directed the DU to issue letters to colleges for admitting students under TYUP. The UGC further said that 57 out of 64 colleges under the university have said they will be implementing TYUP.
The decision which came after a prolonged meeting between top HRD officials led by Secretary Ashok Thakur and UGC Chairperson Ved Prakash, however failed to resolve the deadlock between the UGC-DU over the continuation of the FYUP. While the colleges may have fallen in line under compulsion, the DU has not accepted the UGC's directive.
Experts feel that the way the HRD Ministry has arm-twisted DU colleges into accepting its directive even when the university continues to oppose it, has set a bad precedent and makes a mockery of the concept of autonomous universities and colleges.
Tuesday's communication is the 16th note from the UGC to the DU over the controversial FYUP. On Sunday, the UGC had issued directions both to DU and all 64 colleges under it to conduct admissions under the TYUP and not under the controversial FYUP implemented by the varsity last year. The Commission had warned both DU as well as the colleges of "consequences" if they failed to implement the UGC's direction by Monday forenoon.
"Under no circumstances shall the University of Delhi or any of the colleges under it admit students to the FYUP for academic year 2014-15. Any deviation from this directive either by the University of Delhi or any of the colleges under it shall be deemed to be in contravention of the UGC Act, 1956 with its consequences," the UGC said in the fresh statement issued on Tuesday.
On June 20, the UGC had scrapped the FYUP citing fault with the manner in which it was introduced. The Commission directed the DU to continue with admissions under the TYUP.Terming the UGC directive on the rollback of the FYUP as a decision taken in "haste", the Congress said the step was going to "boomerang" on the BJP-led NDA Government. "That is non-application of the mind and it's going to boomerang," leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
Congress general secretary Ambika Soni said there is need for a discussion in universities across the country on the issue and a decision should be taken only after that. CPI(M) however welcomed the restoration of the TYUP and the resignation of VC saying the FYUP was "arbitrarily imposed" on the students.