Condemn Assaults on Democracy: Raipur Sessions Court Convicts Dr. Binayak Sen, Sentences Him to Life Imprisonment!

On December 24^th, the Raipur Sessions Court delivered a shocking and shameful verdict convicting noted human rights activist and peoples’ doctor Binayak Sen for ‘sedition’. And on the basis of this charge, the court has sentenced the 58-year old Dr. Sen to life imprisonment, which is the maximum possible punishment for sedition. This judgment came at the end of a so-called trial in the court of law – a trial that was nothing but a farce in the name of justice.

For many years now, Dr. Sen has been targeted by the Chhattisgarh government for being one of the most vocal voices against the state-sponsored genocide under the garb of Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. We have not forgotten that prior to this ‘trial’ in the Raipur Sessions Court (which was clearly politically motivated), Dr. Sen was imprisoned in jail for more than two years on the basis of extremely dubious ‘evidence’. He was repeatedly deemed a ‘security threat’ by the Chhattisgarh government, and was even denied bail not just by the courts in Chhattisgarh, but by the Supreme Court. It was only after a prolonged national campaign exposing the real intensions behind his arrest and imprisonment – a campaign that was supported by several rights activists and doctors from all over the world – that he was finally released on bail in May 2009. And now, the Chhattisgarh government has succeeded in sending Dr. Sen back to jail, this time for life.

It is to be noted that throughout Dr. Sen’s trial, the prosecution failed miserably failed to show any evidence linking the highly respected paediatrician and human rights activist with the Maoists. Any pieces of ‘evidence’ were lacking the most basic proof of authenticity. Firstly, the most important ‘evidence’ presented by the prosecution is a letter allegedly seized during a raid on Dr. Sen’s house. This letter does not contain signatures of Dr. Sen himself, and is not included in the list of items noted in the seizure memo. For the Court to overlook such overwhelming proof of faked evidence, and instead to convict on the basis of such faked evidence, is nothing but a travesty of justice.

During the trial, the prosecution more than once showed itself in a ridiculous light. On one occasion, the prosecution displayed its rank ignorance when it argued that Dr. Sen’s wife Ilina Sen’s conversation with the ‘ISI’ showed her links to Pakistani intelligence – whereas it was in fact a conversation with Walter Fernandes of the Indian Social Institute, a well-known institute in Delhi. For the court to give credence to a prosecution case that was reduced to such farcical and absurd arguments is a shame.

AISA strongly condemns this verdict, and calls upon the progressive and democratic forces in the country to launch strong protests against this state-sponsored witch-hunt. Not just this particular verdict, but the Chhattisgarh government’s concerted attack on each and every voice protesting against state repression, forcible displacement and corporate land grab has to be unequivocally protested.

AISA Report

Semester System; Change in whose interest?

Youth are always an asset for any society or for that matter for any nation. This is the age when people are full of energy and the age when they dream, aspire and think of changing the society. Education is that one connecting link which puts in the youth the idea of responsibility and grooms him/her in a way that he/she thinks not only as an individual but in a collective sense. India in that case is at an advantage as it is projected that by 2030 37% of our nation will be under the age of 25. Now the question is how to channelize the energy of this youth in a way that the whole society is benefitted by their creative thinking and work. Here come the two visions of higher education, one which see education as an interaction between student and the teacher and the basic aim of which is to work for the overall betterment of society. And the other vision looks at education as something in which a teacher trains a student in a specific way for a specific purpose. To say in simple words one vision is meant for solving immediate problems for the market and other talks of long term issues for the society. I think we have to see the present situation in education system in this particular paradigm, through this particular lens.

The neoliberal agenda which was brought by the agents of World Bank and US imperialism in 1991 opened the gates of Indian economy for the corporate house. Though in 1980’s the process of privatization in education was started in India but for the first time UPA in its second term has made concrete plans to make education as a  commodity  to be sold in the global market. The ‘Semester system’ in DU is only an extension of this particular neoliberal ideology.

But have we at least tried to understand what actually ‘Semester system’ is? Have we at least attempted to study the scenario, pose questions and participate in the discussions on the semester system in the university?

“Why me??” is not the answer to the bigger forces which come into play through this small reform. Without going into the broader view, let’s analyze things, first beginning with the arguments given in favour of ‘semester system’.

The semester system offers the following -

Ø  Students pursuing honors can opt up to six papers from other subjects.

Ø  Evaluation of the answer scripts world be centralized, joint evaluation of scripts by 3-4 teachers, each one evaluating one or two answers of all the scripts.

Ø  No further assigning of fictitious roll no., and the system of revaluation to be discontinued.

Ø  For Honors courses the main papers will be 16

Ø  For practical exam- two teachers of the same department same college will conduct the practical exam, monitored by a monitoring committee.

Ø  25% of the marks for internal assessment to be redistributed in the following manner.

Attendance – 10%, Assignment (at least) – 10%, Class Test   - 5%

These offers are justified on the grounds that

1.      The semester system is successful in various European countries and IITs.

2.      It is more inter-disciplinary.

3.      Students will work throughout the year rather than through periods of "leisure” and hyperactivity.

4.      It will increase student-teacher interaction.

5.      Semester system is in conformity with the global standards and will facilitate student’s exchange.

Real Implications of the Semester System

Let us see whether the semester system is suitable for Delhi University with over 80 colleges, Nearly 1,00,000 students, by step by step analyzing the realites & false justifications . 

Rationality – There are many universities which do not follow semester system such as the Oxford, Cambridge and London school of Economics; hence excellence cannot be achieved only by semester system.

The structure and functioning of European Universities is much different as compared to DU, they have a different kind of financial setup, based on the money invested by market forces. Giving examples of NITs and & IITs doesn’t help as they are just compared to one college of D.U.

The harmonization of academic calendar through a uniform semester system across the European Union under the Bologna process has created unrest among students all over France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Croatia; it is unfortunate that such unpopular impositions become ideal examples for education planners in India.

Interdisciplinary & Course Content

The design of the system cuts down the content being covered in the major subject and hence diluting the honors program and lowering its value. Interdisciplinary courses have already been introduced and are running successfully. What is hindering the idea of interdisciplinary is the limitation that colleges face in offering large no of optionals, as a particular college offers a limited courses due to shortage of facility & infrastructure, hence if one has to study the subject (optional) of his choice, he might have to go to some another college, for that particular subject, hence this inter collegiate exchange of students seems impossible seeing the large geographical spread of the university.

Admission & examination related issues

A university where admission process goes on till September, the situation will be very scary if the examinations are held in October end, as a result a large no. of students will fail or the examination process will end in July within a short period of time, leaving many students dreaming of studying in D.U.

The way in which the examinations are conducted creates a situation in which the subject taught in the whole year will be taught in less than half of it, hence increasing the pace by which teachers cover up a subject, leaving no time for detailed explanation and no time to grasp a topic easily.

Reduced period of "LEISURE', "HYPERACTIVITY" & INCREASED INTELRATION BETWEEN STUDENT AND TEACHERS.

Due to overburdening of students, to face exams in 3 months and to finish off the subject in such a short span of time, would divert the students from their extracurricular activities such as being active members of music society, theatre group, dance group, NSS and sports, as they need time, which is termed as period of “leisure”, hence now no laurels to DU for producing world class actors,musicians & sports persons; plus the semester system will diminish an important sphere of informal interaction & involvement of many teachers and students which was earlier possible through these activities.

Centralized Checking and Results

The centralized evaluation has created a wild spread resentment as in this system the teacher gets less than two minutes for non-honors papers and around 3 min in honors to evaluate an answer, Which he/ she has written for about 40 minutes, now fair is it?? Also the student’s right to get his answers revaluated is curbed by discontinuing revaluation, in order to avoid the chaos that would have resulted due to a 1 month difference between new result and next exams. Hence we conclude that the semester system is beneficial only if it is implemented in a proper environment where admissions are completed on time, examinations held and result declared on time, result trusted and students having large no of optional to choose, else there would be a collapse of federal system of affiliating colleges in DU, by bringing in clusters of autonomous colleges with NAAC ratings.

Consequences

          As the semester system is bound to fail in Delhi University so it will inevitably pave way for the argument that the university be broken up into smaller units & colleges given autonomy. This is the actual motive of ‘Semester System’, to have smaller autonomous units so that ‘private players can be pushed into education sector, in the name of raising funds. The situation in St. Stephens College is an example is well in front of us. The motive is to turn all the colleges into Islands cut-off from the real world and real struggles, so that there is no resistance for the fiancé capital to circulate freely. But of course the present scheme of semester system may be good for certain Indian students, desiring foreign trips and for some multinational entrepreneurs and universities wanting to expand their hegemony over the public system of higher education in India, it would result in excessive fee-hike in a country where 77% people earn Rs. 20 or less than that.

Ankur Goswami, KMC, DU

Dhaula Kuwan Incident and Gender Disparity

Few days back, a woman from the North-East, aged 30, was abducted and gang-raped by four men in India’s capital, Delhi. After the incident numerous discussions and seminars were held in Delhi.  Various women organizations protested to the Delhi government to convict the guilty as soon as possible. Some organizations demanded a list of some special precautions to be followed by the police and the BPO authorities in case of woman employees. For many years now, Delhi has been quite unsafe for women particularly from North East and there has been a long list of incidents where North Eastern women have been victim of various sexual assaults. It is unfortunate that women belonging to the North East are often the victims of ill informed stereotypes making them easy targets for rapes and incidents of sexual violence. They are often perceived as ‘others’ and seldom considered a part of the larger ‘us’.

I will like to include here a situation of which, we are clearly aware that is of a communal riots, when a crazy mob was channelized to vandalize the lives, property of other community. But the issue is not only about the ‘women’ from the other culture or having a distant physical character but fundamentally it is of a category we call ‘woman’. Women have always been the target of clashes as a woman is seen to be representing the ‘izzat’ of whole family or a particular community. Some society leaders have time and again blamed the victim (i.e., women) itself as being responsible for the ill treatment given to them by society. Ironically, these leaders call themselves the propagators of the religious consciousness of the society. The general argument in support of this claim is that women come out of their homes at odd hours and also they don’t have the proper cloth wear sense. Here one must feel necessary to say few words in response to the preceding argument. First and foremost, these arguments take away from women their freedom of choosing their life styles, life partners and also impose restrictions on their freedom of movement. There have been many cases where two year old females, a school going girl have been abducted and raped by these delinquent elements and I don’t think that a two year can even come out of the house. It shows that women, irrespective of age, time, dress or class are harassed, molested and sexually assaulted every hour of the day. What dress did the two-year old wear, or what was the night shift that the baby worked. One should immediately sense that this is an apparent instance of corrupt consciousness which should be punished without fail.

 It is high time for the society to stop blaming the women and look at what’s wrong with our society. Some have also blamed the lack modesty of woman while accounting for such incidences and this includes our own Delhi chief minister. We must understand that the modesty of women is directly related to the independence of the women. And it should not be considered the victim’s fault of being on the wrong place at the wrong time in wrong clothes, and most importantly of being the ‘wrong gender’. Basically if we think, we know exactly that this is because of particular attitude of our society towards the woman as a whole. This attitude that if women do not stay confined within the household, are not in ‘Parda’ and do not follow the behavior and norms of patriarchal society then they are not moral one and therefore these cases are the result of their immorality. These arguments are in fact a product of our patriarchal society, which treats woman as inferior, unequal and dependant on the males. These ideas about ‘women’ as a whole are enforced, influenced and propagated by the religion, caste and culture. However, to consider such thinking as only belonging to traditional or rural context would be unfair. For instance, what about an incident of sexual violence and rape in a city like Delhi, which claims it to be a world class city which is the capital of India and centre for world market. A place from where, we talk about the democracy, a place that is a hub for political activities, a place that houses the Lok Sabha as well as the Supreme Court. It is a place, where women have major participation in economic sector, a place, where large amount of defense forces exist and yet the women are not safe. Women are not in safe in Delhi, neither in India nor in the world. I want to draw attention here that a woman is not even safe in her own household where large amount of sexual violence takes place.

Sexual violence is not just a crime resulting from sexual passions, but it is more than that, it’s a crime of ‘right to life’. The irony is that a country whose president is woman, whose capital’s chief minister is woman; such a state of affairs exists. It is not about who represents you, but it more about and reflect the absence of solid political will. People who want to and are running around to build Delhi into a world class city are sleeping. No wonder that Lalu Prasad Yadav, who was consistent in his opposition to the women's reservation bill in the parliament had stated during the recent Bihar elections, “women will vote only to those whom their men ask them to”. This attitude perceives women as bereft of any individuality, self-respect, consciousness and entirely dependent on men. It is this degrading attitude towards women that makes the society insensitive to the crimes committed upon them. If a woman marries somebody with her will, this is not tolerable to the khaap panchyat. They are in hurry to kill the woman in the name of honour. But why doesn’t Naveen Jindal who raised his voice in favour of khaap panchyat, did not raise his voice when a woman is raped.  Women constitute half the world’s population, then where is their participation in the political sphere?  Despite the abundant  cases of female feticide and killing of woman in the name of honour, when woman herself further decides to shackle her tormented life from the deadlocks of patriarchy and institutionalized oppression, similar proposition of justifying honour killings are ridiculously made by the KHAP PANCHYAAT, one of the many manifestations of the present state governance. In the light of such strident demands, one needs to understand the underlying element that the morality rhetoric is used as the last weapon to restrict the freedom and legitimize the domination of the already marginalized.

There is poem by someone which goes likes ‘to be safe is not to exist…’, but I want you to think and ask, don’t you want to exist?? My answer is,

I want to…

Tahiba Khan, Student of Sociology, DSE, DU