Repression of Occupy UGC’ movement

Delhi --- The students’of Delhi’s universities and J N U were  protesting against the University Grants Commission’s (UGC’s) . This struggle started against the decision to discontinue the non-National Eligibility Test (NET) Fellowship for research scholars.  But instead of hearing their voice the government deployed there police and paramilitary personnel with the intention of crack down on “Occupy UGC” movement. A group of protesters was picked up by ITBP and CRPF personnel from the UGC office premises and detained, while another group faced lathicharge at ITO .

        The decision of U G C was a blow for the students who were not NET qualified .  So The students have been asking for not just the reinstatement of the fellowship of Rs 5,000 and 8,000 per month, respectively for MPhil and PhD students, but also its increase. A delegation of students met UGC officials in the evening, but were not satisfied with the response. The protesters decided to organise an indefinite gherao of the UGC office . The UGC, meanwhile, decided to refer its decision to scrap the fellowship to an expert committee after the HRD ministry stepped in. According to ministry sources, the UGC justified scrapping of the fellowship on the grounds that there was little transparency and accountability in this scholarship programme. 

        The logic behind the decision was given by the ministry as  “Last year, the UGC disbursed Rs 99.16 crore under the non-NET fellowship. This is a huge amount and it was spent without any transparency. On one hand, we expect students to qualify NET to get fellowship and on the other we have students who don’t need to take any test to get financial aid. The UGC felt this amounted to double standards and decided to discontinue the non-NET fellowship,” said a ministry source.

        The protesters were “forcibly picked up” put in buses and taken to Bhalswa Dairy police station, nearly 20 km away.

        Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists who had kept away from the protest stayed put outside the UGC office. They were not touched by the paramilitary or police forces.

        A B V P exposed itself in this struggle .  ABVP pesident blamed that occupy UGC movement blaming central government for this decision

        The U G C decision is not a secret . it is apparent and everyone who know about the new economic reforms can get through it easily. Modi gov systematically cutting down the budget in favour of monopoly capital with fast pace. In financial year 2014-15 the government given a rebate in tax of 6 lakh carore to the capitalist . in additon to this Modi gov. cut down more than 2 lakh crore from the budget in favour of corporate.

        The decision to discontinue the non-National Eligibility Test (NET) Fellowship for research scholar and brutal repression of the agitators and the logic to nullify all the struggles being given by the sangh family and Modi gov again indicated clearly the faasist trend of Modi gov.