NSUI protests against inclusion of course on Savarkar in DU syllabus

NEW DELHI: NSUI activists on Wednesday staged a protest outside Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh's office over the recent changes in the BA (Political Science) syllabus, including the inclusion of a course on Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Teachers on Saturday claimed that the university has replaced a paper on Mahatma Gandhi in the fifth semester Political Science syllabus with one on Savarkar.

On Wednesday, students affiliated with the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI) alleged that the university has included the course on Savarkar following pressure from the Centre. There is also a proposal to drop a Philosophy course focusing on the works of Dr BR Ambedkar.

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The protesters submitted a memorandum to the university administration opposing the changes to the syllabus. "The Delhi University administration recently decided that an elective course on the philosophy of Dr BR Ambedkar will be removed from the Philosophy (Honours) undergraduate programme. It is also proposed to teach Savarkar in the Political Science course," the NSUI said in a statement. The NSUI demanded that instead of removing Ambedkar from the elective course, an additional chapter should be added on him and efforts made to motivate the students to do maximum research on him.

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Kunal Sehrawat, the Delhi unit president of the NSUI, said in the release that Ambedkar was an indigenous thinker of the social aspirations of the majority of the country's people. Nitish Gaur, the NSUI's national secretary, said the university is including the chapter on Savarkar under pressure from the BJP government at the Centre. "The NSUI will start a big movement if the course is not removed and ensure that history is not taught to the students by distorting it, the truth of Savarkar's cowardice will be conveyed to every student," Gaur told the students.