A protest by students against Delhi University’s Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) turned ugly on Saturday with many students getting injured when the Delhi Police used water cannons against them. The action was taken when the students tried to cross a barricade and moved towards the Vice-Chancellor’s residence.
More than 300 students — mainly from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — had to face the water cannons. Some were injured while some were detained. “The administration has asked the police to do this. It is not right. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has said in a letter that the FYUP needs to be scrapped,” said ABVP Delhi State secretary Saket Bahugana. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) condemned the police access.
Members of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), who were protesting and demanding the FYUP rollback, were also beaten up by police.
“This is a fascist behaviour of the administration. Four of our student members have been admitted to the hospital. We just wanted to submit a memorandum to the V-C but we were treated in this manner,” NSUI spokesperson Amrish Ranjan Pandey said. University officials refused to comment on the issue. On Friday, the UGC wrote a letter in this regard and asked the administration to scrap the programme.