AAP, BJP ‘squabble’ in DU; principals’ complaint ‘politically motivated’, say GB chairpersons

NEW DELHI: Governing body members of 28 Delhi University colleges, have asked the DU administration to drop the Executive Council proceedings on the “politically motivated allegations” levelled by a section of DU principals.

The Delhi University Principals Association (DUPA) had submitted a representation to the DU EC against the “illegal” constitution of fact finding committees and “harassment” of DU college principals by governing body chairpersons of some colleges. The DUPA letter was taken up in the EC meeting held on August 18.

In a letter to the Vice Chancellor sent on Thursday, the governing body chairpersons of 28 Delhi University colleges that are funded by the Delhi Government, alleged that the DUPA letter was “frivolous, unsubstantive, unsubstantiated and politically motivated allegations”.

The chairpersons also claimed that the “sudden one-sided inclusion” of the letter as an agenda item in the EC is an “encroachment” on the “autonomous jurisdiction” of the college governing bodies and that it violates the “federal character” of DU.

“We all have a long impeccable track record of actively and selflessly working in the public field with focus on social and educational issues. This frivolous, political and one-sided DUPA representation will adversely affect our reputations which we have built over the years with our hard work,” the letter read.

BJP, AAP in DU colleges

They also claimed that till date no such representations by the teachers were introduced in the EC or given the same considerations. The members also said that the “impartial” body of EC should not be dragged into “political squabbles”. It also claimed that some of the signatories of the DUPA letter have political affiliations to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates such as the student organisation, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and teachers’ organisation, National Democratic Teachers Federation (NDTF). The governing body chairpersons in Delhi Government-funded colleges are all Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominees.

“We respect the EC as the impartial statutory body, which should not be dragged to political squabbles. The DUPA representation makes frivolous, unsubstantive, unsubstantiated and politically motivated allegations,” the letter said.

The members requested that the proceedings around the DUPA letter be declared unnecessary.

In the DUPA letter, principals alleged that governing body members of certain colleges “harassed” principals and illegally constituted a fact-finding committee against them. The fact-finding committee was formed to look into “unauthorised transactions” by the principals of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College and Swami Shraddhanand College.

DUPA had claimed that these transactions were done to “minimise financial stress” in the “absence of funds” as is “prevalent in all UGC-funded institutions”

The friction between the governing body members and the principals goes back even further than the current issue. In April, the teachers of Swami Shraddhanand College had written to the Vice Chancellor accusing the principal of “unnecessary and deliberate delay” in processing promotions.