VC's exit just the start: How FYUP controversy will influence DU elections

New Delhi: The controversy over Delhi University’s controversial Four Year University Programme (FYUP) has come to a head with the resignation of Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh, but for students, the confusion has just begun.

With Singh gone, and with the Supreme Court quashing a PIL challenging the UGC directive, it is almost a certainty that the programme will be rolled back.

While most student unions and number of individual students have welcomed the move to roll back the programme, which has been described by a some sections of the faculty as ’nonsense’, it is an entirely different scenario for the students who have already enrolled under this programme, and find themselves left stranded as a result of the latest developments.

There is no clear indication on what will happen to these students once the programme is rolled back. The UGC has asked DU and its colleges to make “appropriate arrangements” to help these students migrate to a three-year undergraduate programme structure “so that they do not lose an academic year for obtaining undergraduate degrees and ensure that students acquire necessary academic and other competence during the next two academic years”, but there are no clear details about what this would entail.

Amid all the confusion however, one thing is clear. And that is the fact that FYUP is going to be a major issue at the next Delhi University Student Union elections scheduled for August-September this year.

NSUI, the student wing of the Congress party,  had maintained status quo in support of the programme last year when it was first introduced. “The NSUI could barely do anything regarding FYUP. It was Kapil Sibal’s project. Even at the risk of jeopardising the popular student support it could not be opposed,” says an NSUI leader in Delhi.

The other student wings of various political parties, however, did not suffer from such constraints. In a display of rare consensus parties like ABVP, and ultra left AISA came together on the same stage to protest the programme. Both AISA and ABVP termed the programme as ‘anti student’ and ‘anti poor’.

In the coming election, given the current scenario in the Delhi campus, it’s safe to assume that the ABVP might win a clean sweep, riding on the back of this issue. In the last election in 2012, the ABVP managed to get the positions of President and Vice President of the union, while the NSUI managed only a single office bearers position. According to people within NSUI, even though it started protesting the FYUP very recently, the party is still going to suffer in the upcoming election. "

The ABVP on the other hand has high hopes regarding the roll back of the FYUP. “We promised the students that we will fight to make sure that FYUP is rolled back. The BJP Delhi even included it in their election manifesto respecting the request that was made by ABVP,” said Saket Bahuguna an ABVP activist.

However, the UGC directive has sparked anger among a certain section of the teachers. A scuffle broke out when yesterday when allegedly a group of ABVP activists clashed with a group of teachers who were holding a press conference.