[NSI Statement] NSI congratulates the students' struggle in winning the battle against corporate publishers

On 9 March 2017 three well-established academic corporate publishing houses, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis withdrew their copyright suit filed in the High Court against Delhi University and Rameshwari Photocopy Shop, a shop stationed at the Delhi School of Economics campus in Delhi University licensed by the University to carry out photocopying work. The suit that was filed in August 2012 on the grounds that photocopying material from books published by the above three publishers by university students, particularly in the compilation of coursepacks, constituted copyright infringement and revenue loss to the publishers. Right from the beginning it was clear this case was treated as a test case to instate a licensing regime, much like one that exists in the US and other First World countries. 

Being the absolute primary constituency to be impacted by such a case and its possible outcomes, students of Delhi University were amongst the first to take up the battle against some of the most powerful publishing houses in academia. The 'Campaign to Save D.School Photocopy Shop' soon became the 'Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge' (ASEAK), reflecting the growing politicisation of the student community on the issue of the knowledge commons in order to resist an increasing attempt across the world to create a market out of it where it didn't as yet exist. This can be seen in the case of Costa Rica as well where there was an attempt to make photocopying illegal, a move that was successfully opposed on a massive scale by students. 

The students of Delhi University, organised as ASEAK, opposed the move through a range of mechanisms, mobilising students from class to class, organising public meetings, taking out protest rallies, campaigning against these publishers at the annual World Book Fair held in New Delhi, influencing public opinion through writing in newspapers, and last but not the least, taking up the legal battle in the courts. NSI hails the struggle of the students that brought to the centre of the debate questions of equity and justice within the arena of production and distribution of knowledge resources, challenging the private property regime sought to be implemented in the sphere of knowledge production by these big academic corporate publishing houses.

Statement by ASEAK on the Delhi University copyright judgement by Delhi High Court (16 Sept 2016)

Victory for Students and Access to Knowledge in DU Copyright Case: Corporate Publishers Market ends at the gates of the University

- Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK)

In a rare and incredible order on 16th September 2016, the Delhi High Court dismissed the copyright infringement case filed in August 2012 by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis Group against Rameshwari Photocopy Shop in Delhi School of Economics and Delhi University. Justice R.S. Endlaw in a 94 page long judgment interpreted the educational exception under section 52(1)(i) of the Copyright Act, 1957 as covering the act of photocopying prescribed reading material for university courses.

The publishers sought to claim damages to the tune of 60 lakh rupees from the shop citing infringement of copyright, which the publishers claimed was happening through photocopying of parts of books published by them. However, the publishers themselves stated that this suit, for them, was a test case where they wanted to introduce licensing systems across universities in India. These licensing systems intended to control the extent to which material could be photocopied and also direct a share of profit from these reproductions to the publishers. We, the Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK) demanded to be made a defendant in this case as we believed that it is the right of students to access reading material that was at stake in this case- “Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK) filed IA No.3454/2013 for impleadment in the present suit and which was allowed vide order dated 1st March, 2013 and ASEAK impleaded as defendant No.3.” (from the judgment). 

We at ASEAK, had maintained from the beginning that the exceptions within the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, keep reproduction of material for the purposes of education outside the purview of what constitutes copyright infringement. Sure, publishers are running profit making enterprises but universities are not a market. Students pursuing higher education in India come from starkly different socio-economic backgrounds and further, most public universities work with a severe resource crunch. This is worsened by the prohibitively high costs and very limited reach of academic books, which the publishers anyway do not seem to be producing for students. They only make it to libraries and shelves of highly paid academicians. Photocopying, then, is just a quick fix in a system which is unable to meet simple demands of students studying in universities. In this situation, to put restrictions and further try to control and profit from a system which in itself is ramshackle and can hardly be afforded by a majority of students is pure evil. 

We so far had only appealed to the court to remove a stay order which had been put on Rameshwari Photocopy shop against photocopying from books of the said publishers. The court has gone far ahead and dismissed the publishers’ case. Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw observed in the judgment that, “copyright, specially in literary works, is not an inevitable, divine, or natural right that confers on authors the absolute ownership of their creations. It is designed rather to stimulate activity and progress in the arts for the intellectual enrichment of the public. Copyright is intended to increase and not to impede the harvest of knowledge. It is intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors in order to benefit the public”. The judgment has also observed that there is no evidence of “actionable infringement” when it comes to photocopying by the university and its agents, and therefore there is no need for trial and the “suit is accordingly dismissed”.

An Obituary for Education Following the Institutional Murder of Rohith Vemula

Avipsha Das

Courtesy- The Hindu 

On behalf of the students struggling across the country to get the institutions to hear us, let me pass our deepest condolences to this country on the passing of the all powerful and hopeful ‘Education’. We are all saddened by the unfortunate systematic series of events that unfolded and led to the demise of Education.

To say that Education was every bit of empowerment and courage for all of us would be an understatement. Education that stood for all will always be remembered, as a great domain where we all thrived for equality and freedom, and will be terribly missed. A place where at least we all felt we could as students have equal rights to come together to produce knowledge and debate is now lost.

We register our utmost grief that nothing can replace the void that Education left us with. No, not the huge classrooms with microphones, laptops for all and cameras to keep a check on who is reading what, who enters the library at what time or even those cultural annual festivals that will remind us of institutional foundations and values that are long lost. Now, they will be forcefully organized by students with colourful dresses and badges claiming some position of responsibility. No, not in any capacity can merit replace the presence of Education. Merit will not even be able to begin to scale Education's absence and the loss we face.

Only if our institutions had not fallen prey to arenas of political plays and partnerships, Education would not have been split into the Public and the Private, and maintained some good health. Only if our institutions had not let appointments colour our syllabus and design of learning, Education would not have turned pale as saffron. Only if our institutions had provided us roads (mechanisms) that, as marginalized students, we could have tread on without fear to confront ostracism and social boycott; we could have ushered Education out of the mishap altogether.

Only if our institutions had place for more participation and representation from all walks of life, Education would have had a longer life. We hope we will still have strength and some remains of our collective identity to come together to ask for justice. The image of Education’s last breath on that fan, tied to those circulars and decisions, is fresh in our minds.

We are sorry that we hear the funeral had already taken place. As the days and weeks pass by, and as the country catches back to the routine, there will be more rules and discipline to comfort us and help us adapt to a future with only an illusion of Education. We hope we gather immense strength in facing losses one after the other. The sudden death of Cinema last year, and today Education, and now wonderful memories of where we had once imagined Education to stay with us stronger in our experiments and explorations with rationality and justice will be cherished. We can only frame the last few pages on which Education survived in that hostel room, on that blue ink. The rest is the incomprehensible, stardust.

(Avipsha Das is an M.Phil scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)

Its time to read the writing on the walls

- Critique Collective

Note: This piece was published under the title "Students rise to free education, Resist onslaught of free Market" as the editorial in Critique Magazine, Vol-1, No-2, January-March, 2011. Though written and published more than 4 years ago, the piece remains very much relevant for today.

The current unrest in universities across the globe seems to stretch the limits of national boundaries. It is not about England or Germany or South Africa or any other country; the speedy transformations in higher education occurring within the geo-political boundary of India are more than education in India. If students’ protest in the UK are reverberating its pulses in other parts of the globe, though varied in degree or nature these may be, the current ‘reforms’ attempted by coordinates of power within the Indian education system, could well stand ironically in a position of pre-empting possible disturbances that might result in mass protests. Slogans of different students’ protests against reckless process of privatisation and privilegisation of education which are unabashed symptoms of the chronic rampage of dear old capitalism, have sought to analyse, reassert as well as redefine the meaning and nature of a university:

“University is a factory”

“University has no history of its own; its history is the history of capital. Its essential function is reproduction of the relationship between capital and labour”

“Resistance does not mean nostalgia for the old university model that was embedded in state power and supported by an idealistic and ideological conception of the university as an ‘ivory tower’ of national pride”

These slogans from around the world capture the nature and idea of a university in the current context. Lessons are to be learnt.

In a capitalist world, the production of knowledge and ideas are bound to comply to need of capital like everything else in society has been made to since its advent, be it the patriarchal family or the modern state. The recent developments in universities across the globe are historical consequences of a churning that has long been attempted and resisted. This upsurge of protests are mirrors of what is wrong with capitalism and are clarion calls for what is to be done about this wrong. While students cannot offer a blueprint of “What is to be done” to destroy capitalism, they constitute a force which can ignite the restlessness in society. If university has become a factory, the relationship of the students with the university has become like the one between factory owners and workers.

The nature and intensity of students’ organisation/movement/protest have been determined by nature of state and market, as much as by ideology. The immediate context, however, is the nature of the university within which they are located. For instance, in the recent developments in the Delhi University, the resistance against the ill-conceived educational reforms by undemocratic imposition of the Semester System came mainly from the teaching community and not the students. While we have witnessed that in other places it was mainly the student mass which led and organized the protests, eventually to be joined by other sections directly or indirectly linked to university and education. What is so different about Delhi University then, becomes a question to be deliberated upon, at least a worthwhile question to ask if not sure answers as of now. The clue perhaps lies in the hierarchical relations between students and teachers which further reflect persistent pre-modern hierarchies in our societies.

The nature and structure of teacher-student relationship with Delhi University, as in most parts of India, is largely a hierarchical one. Despite entering the university as adults, the students are largely infantilised; their concerns, especially academic ones, are represented by teachers who do a sorry job of entering into any widespread and intensive dialogue with the student community. This has only got reiterated during the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) movement against the new Semester System. The history of Delhi University students’ politics (barring the small scale protests by mainly left students’ organization) have rarely seen students coming out as a mass force to take up academic issues in their own hands and make an argumentation towards a radical intervention. It is a reality that what has been inflicting students in other universities in the world is also inflicting students in Delhi University. However, the latter seem to be waiting for a taste of bitterness to enter into its veins or it lies incapacitated. In recent times, it is true that the class character of the students might have gradually changed and entered the chasm of consumerism at large. However, the problem is not simple as that. It is an indication of why these ‘conscious’ sections of society are not ready to ‘fight’. If the court has admonished the striking teachers for being ‘disruptive’, the teachers in general filter down the same ‘value’ to the students. The teaching and the student community stand segregated making a mockery of the organic teacher-student relationship which defines the university. University as a space of adults and free deliberations, dialogues, debates and imagination ceases to exist as a whole, with allowances of tiny and sporadic sparks which might not necessarily lead to a firing of consciousness. 

Delhi University Contract Workers Forum Registers Protest over Prof. Thapan's Appointment as Provost

09/02/2015

DELHI UNIVERSITY THEKA MAJDOOR MANCH

Contact: ducontractlabourforum@gmail.com| +919013074978

Open Letter to University of Delhi administration

To,

The Dean of Colleges,

University of Delhi,

Delhi.

We strongly condemn the University’s decision to appoint Prof. Meenakshi Thapan of the Department of Sociology as the Provost of the International Students’ House for Women (ISHW). As is publicly known, Prof Thapan was the Provost of the neighbouring Ambedkar-Ganguly Students’ House for Women (AGSHW) till July 2014, after which she resigned from the position in face of criticism and opposition from the hostel’s Managing Committee. These stemmed from numerous complaints about misbehaviour and/or infringements of the rights of contract workers in that hostel under Prof. Thapan’s management. The gravity of these complaints and irregularities can be gauged from the following:

• In the past few years, whenever complaints about misbehaviour of hostel administration or infringements of the rights of contract workers were taken to the authorities of the AGSHW, the contract workers in question – sanitation workers and security guards for the most – were instantly dismissed, despite good service record of many years’ standing. 

• Sanitation and housekeeping workers have been made to work at the Provost and Resident Tutor’s houses during the hours when they were supposed to do their duties in the hostel. This labour was extracted through the constant humiliation and threats of job loss and was a norm under Prof. Thapan’s tenure. 

• Given the above, members of the University’s SC/ST Employees’ Welfare Association had also intervened to communicate their knowledge of such behaviour. 

• Over the previous three academic sessions, residents of the hostel who were part of the Students’ Welfare Committee have repeatedly issued formal complaints against her management to office-bearers in the administration. Similarly, Prof. Thapan’s mismanagement of the hostel’s financial affairs in 2010, negligence of duties in times of crisis and constant harassment of workers have also been made public from time to time by the Students’ Welfare Association of the AGSHW. 

It was only after the persistent intervention of members of the New Socialist Initiative (NSI), hostel residents and faculty members on the hostel's Managing Committee concerned over violation of the law that the wages in the hostel were raised to the legally stipulated minimum wage. However, the non-payment of arrears to all those workers who worked below minimum wages for several years before is as yet an unresolved issue. 

These and other matters relating to mismanagement under Prof. Thapan’s tenure as Provost to the AGSHW are in the public domain as public record. Two separate Managing Committees of the AGSHW over the last two academic sessions would be able to confirm these violations and attest to the changes effected in the running of the hostel to avoid the possibility of further disturbance caused by the Provost’s mismanagement. It should be noted that while neighbouring hostels attempted to resolve these issues through negotiations and dialogue, no such interaction was possible under Prof. Thapan’s management. Significantly, it should further be noted that:

• on 8th April 2014, a safai karmachari of AGSHW was humiliated and abused by the Provost and her husband, while he was working at her residence. Following his refusal to work in the Provost’s residence and request to be given duties within the hostel premises only, which is in keeping with his job description and rules of the hostel, he was further victimised. Workers' solidarity and concern among the student residents on this issue drew the ire of the Provost, who then removed 5 out of 6 sanitation workers and 6 security guards from their jobs at the hostel. 

• on 1st July 2014, AGSHW brought to our notice that on the occasion of his overnight dismissal from his job, a security guard was told by the Resident Tutor to take off his uniform given to him by the hostel and return home shirtless. Such bodily humiliation of people, some of who belong to the Dalit community is clearly punishable under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) act 1989. 

Hence, despite being aware of her violations of the Minimum Wages Act and her committing acts of humiliation that are tantamount to a violation of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, the University administration’s decision to reappoint Prof. Thapan to a similar position where she can exercise power over contract labourers is shocking and deeply disturbing. Apart from Prof. Thapan’s resignation on the same issue, we are witness to no action by the University. Instead, Prof. Thapan’s reinstatement as the Provost of the neighbouring hostel within the same hostel complex seems like a sanction her illegal and inept management from the University itself and cannot but be seen as an act of disrespect for human dignity.

In light of these widely known public concerns, we demand that the University authorities revoke the appointment of Prof. Thapan as the new Provost of the International Students' House for Women. The University should provide a fair and rational work environment, instead of making the staff insecure and fearful of daily bullying and humiliation as soon as they step into their work site. We also endorse the following demands made by the NSI in its letter dated 7th July 2014 to the Chairperson of the Managing Committee of the AGSHW and hope that these will be met before this academic session is over:

1. An immediate end to the continuous harassment and victimization of workers, and their reinstatement. 
2. The removal of the Provost and the Resident Tutor and legal action against the former. 
3. A grievance redressal mechanism to prevent and deal with future incidents of humiliation. 

In addition, the NSI asked that:

1. Given the past record of private contractors and the lack of compliance with the law, the University must not privatize regular work of the hostel. 
2. All past arrears of workers must be settled with immediate effect. 
3. The minimum wages should be increased to a living wage of Rs. 12,000 per month.
4. The number of sanitation and housekeeping workers must be increased as they have diminished over the last two years. 
5. All official communication with workers must be in a language they understand. 

We hope that you will take cognisance of the grave violations of not just the law of the land but also basic tenets of human dignity at stake in this matter and act in a just, non-discriminatory manner.

Sincerely,

Delhi University Theka Mazdoor Manch

**********

For a background see Violation of Labour Laws and Constant Humilation, Victimisation of Hostel Workers

‘Kiss of Love’ in Delhi, Confronting the RSS

- Vasundhara Jairath and Bonojit Hussain

(This brief report was written immediately after the protest on Saturday near the RSS office in Delhi. It was later published in Kafila. Here the report is reproduced with few additions made by the authors. The English translation of the Hindi quotes used here was done by Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Kafila).

In the first of its kind in India, youth in Kochi launched a campaign called ‘Kiss of Love’ to challenge the moral policing of the Hindu Right. While that protest was attacked by right wing thugs and suppressed by the police, this form of protest has since spread to different parts of the country like Hyderabad, Bombay and Calcutta. Today, the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest was held at nowhere short of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) head office in New Delhi. A few individuals took the initiative and gave a call for this protest on Facebook with the title, ‘Sanghi Gunde Hoshiyar, Tere Samne Karenge Pyaar’ (Sanghi thugs beware, we will love in front you).

A screenshot of the facebook event

Within a day of giving this call on Facebook, self-professed RSS-affiliated cadres began trolling the Facebook event page. These trolls splashed the phone numbers and other personal details of the organisers all over the internet calling out to fellow right wingers to call, threaten and intimidate the organisers, who received death threats and threats of sexual assault throughout last night. Over 1000 abusive and threatening comments and messages were posted within 24 hours. Bajrang Dal on Facebook gave an open call to attack the protestors. While they deemed the proposed protest as going against Indian culture, they made repeated threats to sexually assault women leaving little to the imagination of the place of women in their version of Indian culture. While most comments are not worth repeating here, below are few samples of some of the most sanitised threats on the Facebook event page:

“मित्रों ये फर्जी पेज है इसे ज्यादा गंभीरता से लेने की जरूरत नहीं है, किसी मूर्ख ने इसे अफवाह फैलाने के लिए बनाया है, कृपया आप लोग क्रोधित होकर किसी को गाली ना दें, आप सोच भी कैसे सकते हो कोई दिल्ली जैसे शहर में ऐसा करने की हिम्मत जुटा सकता है, एक बात सदा याद रखना मित्रों हमारी दिल्ली कल भी हिंदुत्व का सबसे बड़ा गढ़ थी आज भी है और कल भी रहेगी , अगर ऐसा होता भी है तो यहाँ ऐसा करने वालों का क्या हाल होता है कल आप लोग देखेंगे, चिंता करने की कोई बात नहीं है वो कोई ऐसी वैसी जगह नही है बल्कि दिल्ली मेट्रो का स्टेशन है, जिसकी सुरक्षा हमारे CISF के देशभक्त सैनिक करते हैं, वहां रंडापा मचाने वालो का पिछवाडा तोड़ दिया जाता है , जहाँ बिना CISF की मर्जी के परिंदा भी पर नही मार सकता, सोचो वहां इन लौंडो व रंडियों का क्या हाल होगा, वैसे किसी भी अफवाह को देखते हुए आज ही सूचित कर दिया गया है CISF वालों को बाकी का नजारा कल आप लोग न्यूज़ चैनलों पर देखना …”

Friends this is a fake page, there is no need to take this page very seriously. Some fool has made this page to spread rumours, please do not get angry and curse people here. How can any one even think that they can dare to have the courage to do such a thing in a city like Delhi. Remember, one simple thing friends, our Delhi was a fortress of Hindutva yesterday, it is so today, and it will remain so tomorrow. Even if someone tries to do something, you will see what happens to them, so there is nothing to worry about. The venue where they say they will gather is not some ordinary plae. It is a metro station. The security of the metro station is in the hands of our patriotic CISF soldiers, Anyone doing anything slutty there will have their backsides broken. Without the CISF’s say so, not even a bird can flap its wings here. Think what fate can befall these sluts and their toy-boys. In any case, keeping all the rumours in mind, we have informed the CISF soldiers already. What else can we say – wait and see what happens tomorrow on the news channels.

"संघ कार्यालय के सामने kiss कर प्रदर्शन करेंगे -
अंग्रेज़ों की नाजायज़ औलाद
आओ शौक़ से आओ पर निम्न बातों का अवश्य ध्यान रखना
अपने जन्म देने वालों को अपनी अंतिम इच्छा अवश्य बता कर आएं,
बच भी गए तो किसी अस्पताल में अग्रिम बुकिंग करवाकर आएं,
एम्बुलेंस की व्यवस्था पहले से कर के रखें,
हो सके तो तुम जैसी गन्दगी पैदा करने वालों को भी साथ ले कर आएं
ताकि उन्हें भी तुम्हें पैदा करना का अफ़सोस हो."

"The bastards (Illegitimate children) of the English will 'KISS' in front of the RSS Headquarters in Delhi. Come by all means, but keep in mind the following points :
Tell the woman who gave birth to you about your last wishes before you come.
And make sure to have made an advance booking for a bed in a hospital, in case you get out of here alive. And call ambulances in advance.
If possible, get the people who gave birth to filth like you to come with you, so that they can regret the folly of giving birth to you."

Even at such short notice 300 to 400 people turned up for the protest, including students, researchers and young teachers of Delhi University, JNU, Jamia Milia Islamia, Ambedkar University and scores of other concerned citizens. The reason this protest spread to so many different parts of the country so quickly is precisely because the Hindutva right wing custodians of ‘Indian culture’ and their aggressive moral policing have become increasingly emboldened. It is worth mentioning here that the ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, recently launched a campaign in the Delhi University campus against “Love Jehad” and the “menace of live-in relationships” as they go counter to “Indian culture”.

[Video] NSI Public Meeting on "Palestine Burning: Israel neither wants Peace nor Settlement"

The last 22 days have seen one of the strongest and most advanced military forces in the world pound one of the most dense civilian regions in the world without a trained standing army, air force or navy. More than 1300 Palestinians have been killed, the wide majority of them civilians, with atleast a quarter of those killed being children. In comparison 56 Israeli soldiers have been killed (majority of them after ground invasion began on 17th July). For 22 days the international community has been witness to what can only be described as a textbook example of war crimes. Statistics, although they scream out the disproportionality and horror of the situation, ring hollow as the lone superpower (the USA) continues to extend support and justifies the killings carried out by the Israeli military in broad daylight. No global counter measure has been put in place by states that mouth 'concern' over the situation. The international community continues to watch as the Israeli military puts on a gory show of its strength. This genocidal bullying by the Israeli state over Palestinians, especially the people of Gaza, stands as one of the worst cases of chauvinist ultra-nationalism - reckless, unrelenting, denying even a remote semblance of recognition that what it (Israel) is doing is wrong in every possible way. No protest, no resolution, no humanitarian voice seems to be understood by the Israeli state while it tramples upon and decimates lives. Israel and its allies continue to spread propaganda across the world against the Palestinians, so much so that they justifies the bombardment of civilians under blockade by claiming to be “acting in self-defense”. The conservative elites of the world are only too happy to accept this “self-defense” fib, thereby strengthening Israel’s ‘conviction’ over the ‘rightness’ of its genocidal action. Clearly Israel is not alone in its reckless spree of killings, it draws its arrogance from the support it gains from other nation states with similar wishes of imperialistic superiority.

Despite many international groups, students and common people across the world protesting against this spree of mass killings and destruction, India has been rather quiet. Delhi has hardly seen any mass protest worth its name expressing solidarity with the Palestinian cause. The Indian Parliament has seen a minority of legislators even trying to have a debate on the situation. Except for certain groups from the Left who organized protests attended minimally compared to the size of the Indian civil society, the latter stands in utter denial of what is being done to the Palestinians as something that goes against the very basic universal right to life and safety. 

In this larger morose context, the New Socialist Initiative (NSI) organized a meeting in the first week of the new semester in Delhi University (24th July). The University is going through its own experience of increasing attrition of democracy and the reign of an authoritarian administration, where free spaces (even paid spaces are no longer easily accessible) to conduct public meetings have almost become nil. The meeting titled “Palestine Burning: Israel neither wants Peace nor Settlement”, was held in the premises of the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics in University of Delhi. The speakers were Prof. Achin Vinaik, Prof. Aditya Nigam and Prof. Apooorvanand, who spoke clearly and strongly touching on issues which are rarely found in the mainstream Indian media coverages of the Israeli state's attack on Palestine, to a over full house of listeners.

Educating the audience, comprised of University students, the speakers charted out the history of the conflict and the scenario that characterises the recent escalation in violence. Differentiating between the Israeli state and the people of Israel the speakers highlighted the importance of understanding the foundational ideology of Zionism to understand the state's rationale. They also argued that the conflict was not a religious one, as is often portrayed. One of the high points of the discussion was how the arrogance of the Israeli state is well drawn from strong international supporters ranging from multinational corporate houses to states and conservative social groups and ideas. The speakers also further elaborated on why right-wing and conservative governments of the globe, like India, lend sympathy if not always formal support to Israel’s attack on Palestine; to them Israel exemplifies an ideal-strong state, it does what they themselves are unable to do to their “enemies”. Popular international media have been largely pro-Israel in its covering of the attack, at best making the case for both parties being at fault. The speakers cut through the propaganda of this being a two sided war.Speaking from experience of having been there and from simple facts they emphasised the dis-proportionality of the situation in terms of military capacity and political motive on each side. Characterising the situation as the longest military occupation of the modern era, they argued that the occupied people have the right of to defend themselves whereas the occupiers have none to blockade and attack Gaza and Palestinians.The speakers also forcefully highlighted the selective and conscious ignorance of Indian civil society in responding to something as drastic as the Israeli attacks. If the state of Israel has to be brought to peace and settlement, the international community should put sustained pressure on these big players who provide Israel the political and military defence it needs to perpetuate war crimes as it wishes. One of the movements highlighted and discussed was the global BDS campaign (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). The way to weaken Israel and to make it recognize Palestinian sovereignty and its people’s right to life and “right to return”, is by joining such existing movements and fostering forms of solidarity that hit at the heart of alliances (both political and economic) that provide the conditions for the perpetuation of such crimes in plain daylight by the Israeli state. The Left, united, can be the only force in such a situation to bring this society out of its slumber and create international solidarity for the people of Palestine. Till the state of war persists the development of a progressive political consciousness among the Palestinians will be thwarted as the odds are stacked heavily against the progressive-secular faction. The international community has to ensure peace, and the condition of freedom for the Palestinians such that it be possible again for a beleaguered people to make decisions about their future. The discussion continued for about 3 hours.

[Delhi University] Violation of Labour Laws and Constant Humiliation, Victimization of Hostel Workers

- New Socialist Initiative, Delhi University Chapter

This is to bring to notice that the hostel workers in Ambedkar Ganguly Students’ House for Women (AGSHW) of Delhi University, have been the subject of extreme victimization by the Provost (Professor Meenakshi Thapan, Dept. of Sociology) and Resident Tutor (Mary Grace Zou, Dept. of Anthropology). We have been in the know that there is a history of such behavior and gross violations of labour laws in the hostel. When some students of the hostel informed and wrote about the same to the hostel authorities instead of resolving the matter the sanitation & house-keeping workers and security guards, who have been working there for many years, were victimized through non-continuation of their jobs.

On 1st of July, 2014, when a delegation comprising of Representative from New Socialist Initiative, SC/ST Employees’ Welfare Association and Students of Delhi University went to meet the hostel authorities the workers repeated very disturbing stories about the conduct of the Provost and Resident Tutor. It was once again brought to our notice that the Provost and Resident Tutor have been harassing and humiliating the hostel workers on a regular basis. Some of the workers who belong to the Dalit community were subject to behavior that is clearly punishable under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) act 1989 (for now we are not publishing the testimonies online). Sanitation & house-keeping workers have been made to work at the Provost’s and Resident Tutor’s houses during the working hours when they were supposed to do their duties in hostel. Constant humiliation and threats of removing the workers from their jobs is a norm in this hostel. Besides this, there remains a pending issue of payment of arrears when salaries of workers were below minimum wages, that the administration still owes several workers.

In 2010 New Socialist Initiative wrote a letter to the Provost of AGSHW (Annexure 1 click here) highlighting the violation of Minimum Wages Act 1948 in the payment of wages to workers in the hostel for which the AGSHW administration, being the principal employer, is responsible. Evidence of this violation is presented here in Annexure 2 (click here) which shows the wage sheets of Pragati Enterprise, the private contractor for the sanitation & house-keeping workers till 2010, and its payment to the sanitation & house-keeping workers at wages much below the then existing minimum wage of Rs. 5278.

It was only after the active intervention of members of New Socialist Initiative that this was brought to light in public and wages duly increased to meet the minimum wages. However, the non-payment of arrears to all those workers who worked below minimum wages for several years is as yet an unresolved issue. It may also be noted that while wages were duly increased after the intervention of our organization, no action was taken against the authorities responsible for a practice.

Complaints about the Provost and her mismanagement of hostel affairs, negligence of duties and constant harassment of workers besides the above mentioned issues of violation of labour laws has also been noted in the past by members of the Students’ Welfare Association of the AGSHW in a letter to the Dean of Colleges (Annexure 3 click here). However no action was taken following this either. The misbehavior of the Provost has also been noted by the former Warden of AGSHW Dr. Rochelle Pinto (formerly from Dept. of English, DU) (Annexure 4 click here). In this case as well no action was taken against the Provost. Instead Dr. Pinto’s contract as Warden was not renewed.

A Gullgotia's Dairy Part-II

- Nagesh DB Rao

[This is the second part of the author's account of firsthand experience of the Indian variety of neoliberal education. Part memoir, part commentary, part unapologetic rant,A Gullgotia’s Diary hopes to reach you before Galgotias does. To Read A Gullgotia's Dairy Part- I click here]

CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE IN RURAL U. P.

In my defense, I must point out that I was not the only gull of Galgotias. In their effort to brand themselves as “world-class” institutions, India’s private universities are rushing to fill their websites with the credentials of “international faculty,” and Galgotias University is no exception. Some twenty-odd professors had been recruited that year from the U.S. and Europe. It didn’t take most of us long to discover that we’d been had.

For there was a yawning gap between image and reality, between what we were promised and what we were given. The place lacked the basic infrastructure of a university. The library, which seemed about the size of a mid-sized Crosswords or Borders bookstore, had a few dozens of copies of engineering textbooks, and that was about it. It had not a single–not one–book of literature. Okay, I know, it’s a new university, so we should give it time to build. But it wasn’t only lacking in what had not yet been built, it was lacking in what had already been built.

Take, for instance, the one semi-completed building that the university was housed in, a bland and uninspired clone of the corporate office buildings that dot the landscape of Indian cities today. (It was the template for Building #2, which was in the almost-not-yet-finished-but-already-wrecked stage when I left.) It’s a mundane place, an imposing stone-and-glass building with shiny floors, ceiling-to-floor glass walls on the inside, an open, echoing atrium, and large corporate logos splashed across the walls as you enter. ”If the university fails, they’ll just convert it into a mall,” we often joked, and we believed it too.

It was supposedly designed by a Canadian architect, because, as we all know, there are no architects in India. This architectural genius seems to have had little regard for the local climate, or for indigenous architectural preferences and practices, or for the ecological footprint of this 21st-century campus. The hermetically sealed classrooms and offices, with heat-trapping glass walls and roofing, necessitate central air-conditioning, while the building’s spatial orientation blocks the cooling breezes that sweep across the flat farmland all around.

A fake "photo" of the GU campus

A towering monstrosity

The atrium, which creates this greenhouse effect, also echoes the way a mall does. With no shade or shelter outside the building, let alone an adequate canteen, the students had no other space in which to hang out than the hallways. The din was continuous and unrelenting. So while teaching, you had to shut the doors to block the noise, but you couldn’t open the windows because … there weren’t any. Mind you, this isn’t Shimla or Bangalore but Delhi, where 40 degrees celsius is considered balmy. What would it take to centrally air-condition this absurd structure? Shouldn’t a university, in this day and age, build more responsibly, taxing the earth less? Of course, given management’s priorities, there was no air-conditioning installed, so the classrooms simply became saunas; if you will, sweatshops in at least this very narrow sense of the word.

The massive glass windows and the glass roofing came crashing down one day, thanks to a freak hailstorm, flooding the entire building. It was the janitorial staff (referred to at GU as “housekeeping staff” in the jargon of corporate hotels) who got the short end of the stick, as they were made to work extra hard to keep the floors and stairways dry as the rain kept pouring in the following day.

A Gullgotia's Diary Part -I

- Nagesh DB Rao

[This is the first part of the author's account of firsthand experience of the Indian variety of neoliberal education. Part memoir, part commentary, part unapologetic rant, A Gullgotia’s Diary hopes to reach you before Galgotias does.]

Go ahead, call me gullible. Tell me I should have seen it coming.

“How could you not have known it would be like this? The name itself is a dead giveaway.”

“Who ever heard of a university with a name like that?!”

I can’t recall how many conversations with friends and family these last few months have ended with exactly these words. That name, Galgotias University, emblazoned on virtually every square foot of advertising space in India on land and in the air (with in-flight magazine ads that are as garish as they are deceptive), and how it seemed somehow ill-suited for a university, has served as the Lowest Common Denominator of our collective derision. After all is said and done, the very absurdity of its name offers a way to laugh off the experience of working there and heave a final sigh of resignation. So call me naive for not seeing it all from the very beginning, for not being sensitive enough to what my ears were supposed to tell me when I heard those sounds coming out of my mouth: /gal-go-tee-yaz/ /yu-ni-ver-si-ti/.

Okay, let’s not mock the name. “Harvard” (/haar-verd/) is weird-sounding too if you think about it. Let’s mock the ads instead. Whle driving from Delhi to Greater Noida, at some point on the DND Flyway you’ll find yourself staring at this giant billboard with the Galgotias name and logo, informing you that “THINKING QUOTIENT IS THE FUTURE.” Ponder that for a minute. Is it a puzzle? A riddle? Part of a sentence uttered by a man whose son is named Quotient? Now you know why there are so many accidents on the DND Flyway.

Galgotias University advert

So I should have known that behind the glossy magazine ads and oversized billboards, the fancy website and promo videos claiming that Galgotias offers a “world-class education,” I would find a poorly managed business venture whose profit-mongering makes a mockery of pedagogy, stifles intellectual growth, and distorts and disfigures the teaching-learning process.

But even as a business venture, the place is a disaster. Unable to secure financing for whatever shady or unshady reasons, the owner of this neoliberal corporate university–sorry, the “Honorable Chancellor Sir”–is often unable to pay his bills. Particularly his wage bill. One would think that this would interfere with sound management principles. The owner’s 20-something son, the CEO of the university (I’m not kidding), has a BBA after all, and should have told his old man that unpaid workers are unproductive workers. During my (thankfully brief) tenure at this place, there were several months when we didn’t get paid on time. The only staff who were spared this humiliation were the security guards, because they aren’t on Galgotias’ payroll. Lucky for them.

IIIT-Allahabad chief Cites Illegal Amendment to Hold on to his Chair

- Akshaya Mukul

Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)-Allahabad, a deemed to be university, is caught in a peculiar situation.

MD Tiwari, the director of the institute since its inception in 1999, whose term ended last December and six months extension got over in June has amended the Memorandum of Association (MoA) of IIIT so that he continues till the new director is appointed.

Even as the HRD ministry cries foul and the UGC says amending MoA is patently illegal, Tiwari maintains he has merely followed the law. Chancellor of IIIT-Allahabad, Goverdhan Mehta, has sent a report to the HRD ministry on the latest development. "I have taken an appropriate step. I have written in as much objective and reasonable fashion as possible," he told the TOI.

The matter came to head when Tiwari's six-month extension ended in June. HRD sources say instead of demitting the office he flashed the institute's MoA that was amended in November, 2011. It was discovered that MoA stated that the director can continue in office for six months after expiry of his tenure till a new director joins, whichever is later. The crucial change was introduction of the term 'later' instead of 'earlier.' UGC's 2010 regulation for deemed universities states that after expiry of five-year term a person can continue for six months or till the successor is appointed, whichever is earlier.

HRD ministry's additional secretary protested against the amendment and pointed out relevant portions of UGC's regulation that said no rules or bye law governing the functioning of any deemed university can be altered without UGC's prior approval.

Tiwari contests ministry's claim. He asks, "Why was ministry silent for two years? Moreover, additional secretary's protest letter against amendment has been written not as ministry official but as a member of IIIT Society." Education secretary and financial advisor of the ministry are other members of the society. He also says amendment was endorsed by 26 members of the society. But ministry sources say amendment in the MoA is illegal, and the matter would be taken to its logical end.

IIIT faculty members also blame the HRD ministry for not fast-tracking the appointment of the new director. "It has been more than eight months and a replacement could not be found. Instead, the process is mired in litigation. We are repeatedly told the process will get over soon," they allege.

Sacking 'Ad-hoc' Teachers: Destroying Lives and Playing with the Future of Higher Education

- Mukul Mangalik

‘People are people through other people’ (Xhosa proverb).

‘We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery’ (Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator).

Delhi University (DU) colleges are in the grip of frenzy. With the DU administration breaking promises for appointing permanent teachers against existing and newly sanctioned posts since 2009-10, large numbers of ‘ad-hoc’ appointees are being shown the door as new ‘ad-hocs’ are poised to replace them. This has been happening systematically and with determination since 2012, but the scale on which it is being pursued this summer appears to be unprecedented.

This is being done through the unfair practice of holding repeat interviews for the same jobs. Serving ‘ad-hoc’ teachers, it must be emphasized, have been selected at different times through due process for these jobs. This renders the repeat interviews nothing other than forms for the exercise of power over ‘ad-hocs’ and instruments for deepening the presence and footprint of footloose, malleable labour at DU. The large-scale sacking, or threat of removal of teachers currently underway needs to be brought to an immediate halt and dignity and secure employment guaranteed to all colleagues.

‘Ad-hoc’ appointees become teachers in colleges after going through merit-based interviews. They are appointed for durations of up to four months. Within this period--in the event that the vacancy in question may be longer than four months--selection committees are supposed to be constituted, fresh interviews advertised, and appointments made against temporary or permanent posts. University Ordinances are clear on this issue.

If, for whatever reasons, this does not happen, the fairest possible practice has been that the previously appointed ‘ad-hocs’, who are in no way responsible for delays in interviews for longer-term posts, continue until such time, in the near future, that this process is completed.

All of this has been informed by the understanding that ‘ad-hoc’ or ‘adjunct’ conditions, must remain, at most, a transient moment in teachers’ lives, and that too only if absolutely necessary. The regular work of teaching demands regular forms of employment. Anything else would negatively impact teachers’ work apart from constituting unfair labour practice.

There is adequate evidence regarding the long-term mental and physical destruction caused when people are faced with job insecurity and/or under-employment. Yet, all across the colleges of DU, undergraduates are being taught by thousands of teachers struggling to offer the best they can in the face of indignities, terrible economic insecurity, and the increasing threat of stress-related illnesses. 

Poster Design: Harsh Kapoor

Citizen-Students and the University

 - Sanjay Kumar

[Note: This article was first published in the internet edition of Economic and Political Weekly, Vol - XLVIII No. 19, May 11, 2013. Sanjay Kumar teaches Physics at St Stephen’s College , Delhi University; and is associated with New Socialist Initiative - NSI]

The proposed 4-year undergraduate degree programme of the Delhi University is being pushed through in undue haste without adequate debate and public discussion. The special emphasis on Foundation and Integrating Mind, Body and Heart courses, controversial components of the 4-year scheme, is indicative of an extra-academic zeal. The pedagogical thinking behind these courses is authoritarian and against the spirit of liberal citizenship.

Typically students under the 10+2+3 system of education in the country enter the university at the age of seventeen or eighteen. Time spent in the university helps students transition to adulthood. While there, they attain the legal age that confers citizenship rights and duties on them. The way they are treated in classes and in college and university offices; the rules of conduct they are expected to follow; and the extent and form of recognition they receive as adult citizens from the university– all have a lasting influence on how they imagine their citizenship. University life also involves informal and formal associations with other students and with teachers and staff. The form, purpose and operative principles of these associations shape the affective and cognitive behaviour of students, which partially determine the kind of public sphere they build later in life. This note discusses the recent developments in Delhi University and their implications for students from the perspective of citizenship.

Forcing Citizens to Become Better

Under the proposed 4-year degree course of Delhi University (DU), the students will spend up to one-third of their total class room time on eleven mandatory Foundation courses and two “Integrating Mind, Body and Heart” (IMBH) courses. Foundation courses include courses on governance and citizenship, geographic and socio-economic diversity of India, science and life, psychology, etc,. Little is known about the IMBH courses, except their category titles. It cannot be denied that knowledge about governance and citizenship, and the diversity of our country is useful and enlightening at any stage. This knowledge is integral to school education up to the tenth standard. Universities across the world require students to take non-core disciplinary courses, designed to inculcate "general awareness". But class time for such courses is generally miniscule compared to the time spent on other courses. Students may choose from a wide set of optional courses, and nowhere are these courses considered to be the foundation of an undergraduate education. The special emphasis on Foundation and IMBH courses in the 4-year scheme is indicative of an extra-academic zeal.

Who is afraid of Copyright Infringement?

On 10th of October a Public Meeting was organised by Campaign to Save D School Photocopy Shop, was held at Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University. This event was a part of the long drawn campaign on the issue of ‘copyright infringement’ provoked by the clamping down on photocopying by the Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis Group. The public meeting saw the attendance of several authors and people associated with the field of writing and publishing and discussed a range of issues and matters related to authorship, workings of the publishing industry, the Delhi University system of promotion and its nexus with publication houses. The meeting began with an introduction of the campaign and the law suit taken up by the three publishers against Rameshwori Photo Copy Shop on the “course pack”. In spite of the spontaneous nature of the campaign the need to caution against taking this as a stray incident was emphasised by Mr. Usman, a representative of the campaign. 

Touching upon the workings of the publishing industry Mr. Sudhanva Deshpande, Managing Editor, LeftWord Publishing expressed that he also works with the publishing house and emphasised that many from the publishing world are also with the campaign of the students and that the three publishers Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis group are not representative of them. Appreciating the organising of the public meeting on the issue of ‘copyright infringement’ Mr. Deshpande further stated on the ecosystem that needs to be in place for publishing of books to happen, knowledge is required to be shared and spread widely as possible and it makes sense to have a system where books are read and discussed. 

Petition: Speak out against the Delhi University administration for the disruption of Women's Day Celebration

Dear Friends

We, the students, faculty and staff of Delhi University and friends have been celebrating International Women's Day as an open programme with discussions and cultural events etc. since 1994, in the Arts Faculty, North Campus. This is an open gathering of individuals and organisations to honour this international day. Since March 8th this year fell on holi the gathering was postponed to March 14th.

For the first time, this year, the Delhi University's security guards stopped the programme and asked us to vacate the space immediately as no permissions had been taken. They stopped a play mid-performance and prevented us from holding any discussions and displaying any banners.

The university space has always been one of free dialogue and expression for all. We strongly object to this forcible silencing of our celebration and the closing off of university spaces for open discussions. It is particularly outrageous since celebrating International Women's Day at the Arts Faulty at Delhi University's north campus has been annual tradition since 1994. 

We demand:

• An apology from the Delhi University administration for the disruption of the programme
• The right to assemble as and when we like to express ourselves or demonstrate peacefully without "permission" 
• Access to spaces across the campus for student activity and expression without surveillance and control

To Sign the petition click here

Pakistan at the Cross-Road: Views from a Young Student from Across the Border

[This article was published in CRITIQUE, Vol-1, Issue-3. Critique is a Quarterly brought out by the Delhi University Chapter of New Socialist Initiative (NSI)]

- Saadullah Awan

In the address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on the 11^th of August 1947,  Mohammad Ali Jinnah stated, “If we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor..”

Over the 64 years of the existence of the nation, the ominous statement has been forgotten in the archives of other religious, political and communitarian rhetoric of our politicians and leaders. It is not necessarily their fault. Who is the average Pakistani? Is he the middle-aged man toiling away on the vast land of his landlord in the scorching heat of the Sindh deserts, only to be paid a paltry sum? Is she the old Punjabi woman who washes the clothes and cleans the bathrooms of the upper middle class in the metropolis of Karachi for less than minimum wage? Or is he the Pathan truck driver transporting goods, driving alongside BMWs and Landcrusisers, and smoking hashish at the end of the day, to drown his miseries away?

The only common denominator about the masses in Pakistan, it seems, is the fact that they are mostly illerate and poor. Around 73% of the population lives on under 2 US Dollars a day and the literacy rate for men is a mere 67% while for females it is 42%. Another common denominator is religion: 97% of the population of 180 million is Muslim.

However it isn’t prudent to generalize the population on these lines. Most people in Pakistan base their loyalties not on being Pakistani but on ethnicity and religious sects they think they belong to.

The University and the Struggles of People with Disability

[This article was published in CRITIQUE, Vol-1, Issue-3. Critique is a Quarterly brought out by the Delhi University Chapter of New Socialist Initiative (NSI)]

Dr. Nikhil Jain 

University is a place for creative learning. Introduction of several new market oriented courses has changed the meaning and objective of higher education. The recent change in the structure in the higher education through semesterisation and privatization has led to a tremendous shift in the teaching and learning process. The teaching pedagogy has been influenced by the growing need of the market. This has not only disturbed the autonomy of the universities but also has jeopardized the interests of the subaltern communities. The democratic norms and culture has totally been unsettled with this change. 

Apart from these mainstream issues, there exist several serious issues which still lie at the margins and go unnoticed. The question of accessibility is generally understood only with respect to people with disability. But it has an equal significance for others. For example the facility of ramp and lift does not only enable an Orthopedically Handicap but also supports the aged. Similarly, an audio archive at colleges not only supports a visually impaired person but also allows others to listen to important recorded lectures. The meaning of accessibility goes much deeper. It refers to the degree and nature of connectivity to a larger environment and the acquisition of resources by all. 

In Shera's Den

[This piece was published in CRITIQUE, Vol-1, Issue-3. Critique is a Quarterly brought out by the Delhi University Chapter of New Socialist Initiative (NSI)]

- Rijul Kochhar 

There used to be a time in the University of Delhi when people possessing anything below even a shade of superhuman prowess had to ‘negotiate’ with daily existence. You had to be careful, of a number of worthies—of dilapidated structures and fast vehicles, of roguish sidewalks and earthly drains, of dark minds and nefarious designs. For the disabled then, venturing anywhere for anything really was a venture into the heart of an abyss. One didn’t know whether one would make it in and out with all body appendages intact; but hey, it was an existential game of Russian roulette: you had as good a chance as anybody else, and you knew that! The absence of facilities—footpaths, pavement, toilets, transport, recreation, access to libraries, etc.—was indeed a shame for everybody, but a shame that was cheerfully accepted, borne, and tempered by a genuine desire to help one another. Or, made bearable by the realism of the poverty of our claims, and its resultant apathy. It was an apathy slowly tempered, and it was of great use to us. There was, in this schema, no place for diabolical intent, or deceptive deliverance. 

But we did it happily then: there were hardly any appropriate structures to tread on, roll over, sit on, or admire; that sleek umbrage of a stadium didn’t exist in the very heart of the university grounds; fancy sidewalks — with Braille! — didn’t emerge the night before and promise the hoary land of equal opportunity. All you had were the trees, the good dust, the certainty of uncertainties, and a handful of kind folk in the university offices. You simply made peace with this that you had—a chance to sit in dignity in a classroom and listen to the sonorous rotations of a dangerously clinging old fan, or an even older ‘specialist’ of the field. You walked or rolled to where you had to get to; someone helped. If you were very lucky, you had a friend who lasted; if you were in vogue, you had a pack. 

Some Thoughts on the Pedagogy of Semester System at Delhi University

[This brief note was published in CRITIQUE, Vol-1, Issue-3. Critique is a Quarterly brought out by the Delhi University Chapter of New Socialist Initiative (NSI)]

- Nandita Narain

Semesterised exams can work only if exams are set and evaluated internally (as in the USA, IIT's, JNU, where the numbers are small and the Universities are more or less residential). DU is more like the affiliating Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which have an annual exam system. In our case, especially given the great variation in standards, a lowest common denominator kind of Board exam every four months would only promote rote learning and dumb down the whole system. Neither would the best students have the time to go beyond the exam requirements, to explore, experiment, innovate, critique and learn to think independently, nor would students coming from weaker sections students have time to catch up and be able to face that Board exam. Everyone loses. 

In their tearing hurry to implement the semester system in all courses, which obviously allows no time for consultation and deliberation, the DU authorities have come up with the novel ‘solution’ of snipping syllabii in two! This, more than anything else, betrays a complete lack of understanding of the pedagogic process. Any serious teacher knows that the time taken to cover a syllabus is not linearly distributed. Concepts and foundations (many of which are often not even mentioned in syllabi and exams) take much longer than their applications. Besides, given the great diversity of faculty as well as student population, there can be no uniformity or agreement on the quantum of syllabus to be covered in the short period of three to four months.

एक अमेरिकी युवक का परिप्रेक्ष्य: ‘मैडिसन में हम अपना मुस्तकबिल (भविष्य) देखते हैं’

[Note: This short piece was published in CRITIQUE, Vol-1, Issue-3. Critique is a Quarterly brought out by the Delhi University Chapter of New Socialist Initiative (NSI)]
साल्वाटोर काप्रिआनो

जब आप राजधानी में पहला कदम रखते हैं तो वहां के गलियारों और सभागारों में प्रस्फुटित होती प्रेरणा और एकजुटता की भावना से ओतप्रोत होने से बच नहीं सकते। जनता के सैलाब से रूबरू होना एक ऐसी उम्मीद जगाता है जिससे कई लोग परिचित नहीं हैं और तमाम लोग भूल गए हैं। पहली मंजिल पर स्थित गोलभवन में छात्रों की भारी तादाद है जो इस कब्जे को अमली जामा पहनाने में लगे हैं। उनके हाथों में एक लाउडस्पीकर भी है जिसका इस्तेमाल सभी पारी पारी से कर सकते हैं।

इस संघर्ष से एकाकार होकर छात्रों ने अहम भूमिका अदा की है, स्लीप ओवर सूची तैयार करने से लेकर, फूड डोनेशन्स संगठित करने, मेडिकल स्टाफ और राजधानी में ही सूचना केन्द्र को गठित करके इस कब्जे का आधार बनाने का उन्होंने काम किया है। जगह जगह पोस्टर्स भी लगाए गए हैं जैसे कि माॅल में लगे होते हैं या बिल्डिंगों में चिपके होते हैं, जो लोगों को वांछित गन्तव्य तक पहुंचने में मददगार होते हैं।

दूसरी मंजिल पर बूथ हैं जो सूचना देते हैं या मुफ्त साहित्य वितरित करते हैं और जहां पर खाने पीने की चीजों का स्टाॅक भी पड़ा है। उसी मंजिल पर चार्जिंग स्टेशन भी है जहां पर वे तमाम लोग एकत्रित हैं जो इस संघर्ष की ख़बरों को अपने ब्लाॅगों के माध्यम से दुनिया के हर कोने तक पहुंचा रहे हैं, वहां पर वे लोग भी हैं जो अपने इलैक्ट्रानिक उपकरणों को चार्ज करवाना चाहते हैं।

रात में, दूसरी मंजिल पर तमाम छात्रा और मजदूर लेटे मिलते हैं जिन्होंने यह तय किया है कि ‘‘किसी भी सूरत में किले को बचाना है’’ और इस बात को सुनिश्चित करना है कि इस बिल्डिंग से उनकी पकड़ ढीली ना हो।