Even though the admission to the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) is underway, the protest demanding rollback of the programme is growing further. Now even National Student’s Union of India (NSUI) has joined the bandwagon of already protesting left and Right wing students unions. The protests have intensified ever since media reports have been fluttering of the new HRD Minister Smriti Irani keen on rolling back the structure the protest has intensified.
The youth wing of the Congress party NSUI which until last year were very neutral about the four year programme, on Friday, began a hunger strike at the North Campus demanding roll back of the programme. “It was something new, so last year, we neither supported nor protested against the structure, but now after a year we conducted a survey and have found that it is not good academically and students are not happy with it,” said Amrish Ranjan Pandey, national spokesperson, NSUI.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of RSS, too staged a protest outside University Grants Commission (UGC). “We have been fighting against the FYUP since the time it was implemented and as UGC is the highest authority, we now want it to intervene and take action. We met with the UGC joint secretary and handed our memorandum to roll back the structure, as it is against the National Education Policy,” said Saket Bahugana, Delhi state secretary, ABVP.
Similarly, the left wing All India Students Association (AISA) and the Delhi University Teachers Association have been against the programme since it started. Besides, Save DU campaign’ against the FYUP have also been running since last year and garnering support. “We will be protesting against the structure again on June 10. Our protest has been very regular, we do not want students to become a victim of such academically weak programme,” said Abha Dev of Save DU campaign.