EFLU Students for Justice
The EFL University Administration took a drastic decision to rusticate three students: an Adivasi student Mohan Dharavath, a Bahujan student Satish Nainala and also another Bahujan student Subhash Kumar from North India. In an order dated 6 May 2014, it is notified that Mohan Dharavath, Satish Nainala and others are rusticated from the University for a period of four semesters (till December 2015) and the campus be declared out of bounds for these students. It is not accidental that these two students are student leaders and have been fighting the illegal and undemocratic functioning and corruption of Prof. Sunaina Singh, the Vice Chancellor of EFL University. Mohan Dharavath is the president of Dalit Bahujan Minority Students’ Association (DABMSA), Satish Nainala the General Secretary of Telangana Students’ Association (TSA) and Subhash a senior member of the Democratic Students Front (DSF) respectively. As office-bearers of these two organizations, these three student activists have been actively participating in addressing discrimination, irregularities, corruption and authoritarianism of EFL University administration.
The administration claims that disciplinary action was initiated against the three students “for breaking the glass door of the University Library on 11th March 2014 and instigating other students to do the same”. In the month of March 2014 , the University decided to close down the 24-hour reading room in the Library on the campus. The Students’ Council, a statutory body of the University, organized a week long protest to reclaim this space. The entire student community joined hands with the Students Council’s demands and protested in a peaceful manner. The VC and the administration did not accept the student demands even after 8 days of struggle. On the 9th day of the agitation, the students had planned to occupy Library. The University administration, under the order of the VC, closed the Library without any notice. Following this, the gathered students attempted to enter the Library and one of the glass doors got broken. The police intervened and later the administration agreed to reopen the Library and the reading room. In this protest, around 500-600 students participated every day. All though the matter ended with this. The vindictive and revengeful Vice Chancellor rusticated the three students as late as after two months of the agitation. She carefully chose the vacation time and singled out Mohan Dharavath, Satish Nainala and Subhash Kumar as the sole culprits. The rustication of the underprivileged students is totally illegal and undemocratic.
The University has not followed even the norms to take disciplinary action against the students as per Ordinance 13 of the University:
According to the Note circulated by the University, it says “[these students] had found you guilty for violating Clause -1 of Category – I and Clause – 15 of Category – II”.
Clause – 1 of Category – I states
(i) All acts of violence and all forms of coercion such as gheraos, sit-ins or any violation of the same which disrupt the normal academic and administrative functioning of the University and/or any act which incites leads to violence.
Clause -15 of Category -II.
xv. Damaging or defacing in any form, any property of the University or the property of any member of the University Community
5. GENERAL
(1) No punishment shall ordinarily be imposed on a student unless he/she is found guilty of the offence for which he/she has been charged by a proctorial or any other inquiry after following the normal procedure and providing due opportunity to the student charged for the offence to defend himself.
(2) In case the Vice-Chancellor or any competent authority is of the opinion that on the basis of the available material and evidence on record, a prima facie case exists against a student, he may order suspension of the student including withdrawal of any or all facilities available to a bona fide student pending proctorial or any other inquiry.
The University claims that the Proctorial Board Meeting was held on 9 April 2014 and recommended rustication. The three students were issued show-cause notices on March 24, 2014. The students submitted their reply and denied the baseless allegations. The Students’ council also submitted a letter to the Vice Chanchellor on 25th March 2014 and explained: “The issuing of show-cause notice is completely unfair and unjustifiable since the protest was being staged by the students’ community under the leadership of the Students’ Union, and these three students are not at all part of the Union.”
After receiving the reply to the show cause notices, the Proctorial Board never called for an enquiry. The Board did not call the students for an enquiry and did not give a chance to the students to defend themselves. It unilaterally recommended a harsh decision of rustication for two years without an enquiry.
Both Mohan Dharavath and Satish Nainala are first generation literates from their communities in Telangana. Mohan Dharavath is from ST community, Satish Nainala from BC Community and Subhash Kumar is an OBC from North India. Mohan Dharavath is pursuing his PhD and is palnning to submit his thesis next month, and Satish Nainala is also pursuing PhD and submitting his thesis in December 2014. Subhash Kumar is pursuing his M.A (Spanish).
The current instance of rustication and vilifying Dalit-Bahujan students is representative of the EFLU administration’s underlying sense of casteism. SC/ST/OBC students are systematically ostracized, their politics vilified and their assertion criminalized. For instance, most of the police charges pressed by the university administration have been against students from SC/ST/OBC backgrounds. Caste continually plays a role in the academic and social life of our University.
When not besmirching them academically, the administration constantly attempts to threaten, intimidate and coerce to submission, Dalit-Bahujan political activism in the campus. Even in protests involving most students in the campus, marginalized students are picked out to register police cases on. The academic careers of Dalit students who are politically active are threatened. The VC, for instance, did not allow viva to be conducted for Ravichandran, a Dalit student activist, which was eventually held after protest, and has currently suspended his PhD certificate.
The current issue regarding Mohan and Satish is of a similar nature. Mohan and Satish were handpicked from over 500 students who participated in the protest. The “violence” involved in the whole protest is attributed to Dalit-Bahujan students. In this manner, the EFLU administration attempts to vilify Dalit-Bahujan politics in campus, characterizing it as violent, irrational and impetuous.
We continuously represented such issues to our VC but to no avail. Both, Mohan Dharavath and Satish Nainala were in the forefront of all political movements and exposed the Vice Chancellor’s corruption and irregularities in University. The CAG confirmed and documented large scale corruption by the Vice Chancellor and sent the report to the UGC and the MHRD for further action. The rustication is an act of vindictiveness on the part of the Vice Chancellor, the Proctor and her coterie.
We demand:
1. Withdrawal of Rustication orders against all the three students immediately
2. Suspension of the Vice Chancellor Prof. Sunaina Singh for her corruption and irregularities
3. Resignation of the Proctor Prof. Harsh K. Vijra who recommended rustication as a revenge for agitation against him in the case of Mudasir Kamran.
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Register your protest by sending the message ‘Withdraw Rustication! Suspend Corrupt VC!’ to the following numbers or Email ids:
VC Sunaina Singh: 9000501357
Prof. Harish Vijra, Proctor: 09704116688
Registrar Prof. Madhavan: 09704333183
Vice Chancellor: 040 27098141; Registrar: 040 27098225;
FAX Numbers
EFLU Fax number: 040-27098402
UGC : Fax. Nos. 23231797/23239659
HRD Ministry: 23382365 (Fax)
EMail: EFLU VC and MHRD
vceflu@gmail.com
hrm@nic.in
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