After DUSU, it’s DUTA: Unlike NSUI-Left, anti-BJP teachers stay united

New Delhi: After the BJP-affiliated ABVP won three out of four seats in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections, intellectuals at DU see this as a strategic failure and defeat for the Congress-supported NSUI and other opposition student organisations.

These intellectuals believe that just as opposition-oriented teachers have united, students should have also come together.

Now, after the DUSU elections, the next major electoral battleground is the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) elections, scheduled to be held on September 27.

In the student union elections, ABVP’s Tushar Dheer secured 23,460 votes and won the presidential position with a lead of 3,115 votes. On the other hand, NSUI’s Hitesh Guliyan got 20,345 votes, and Left-supported SFI and AISA student organisations got 5,178 votes.

Experts of student politics believe that despite knowing the strength of the BJP-supported student organisation, opposition student groups couldn’t unite.

However, the politics among teachers at DU is different from that of students. This is why several opposition teacher organisations at DU have formed the Democratic United Teachers Alliance for the DUTA elections.

In this alliance, Aditya Narayan Mishra has been chosen as the candidate for the position of DUTA President.

Aditya Narayan is associated with the Aam Aadmi Party’s teachers’ wing. Despite his affiliation with the AAP, he has garnered support from Congress, Left, and other opposition teacher organisations.

The current president of the Delhi University Teachers’ Association, Professor A.K. Bhagi, is closely aligned with the BJP. This means that in the DUTA elections, the remaining teacher organisations have united against the BJP-RSS-backed candidate.

According to the Left-wing Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF), the Congress’ teachers wing National Teachers’ Congress (NTC), AAP’s Academic for Action and Development Delhi Teachers’ Association (AADTA), and other independent teachers’ unions like Common Teachers’ Front (CTF), Delhi Teachers’ Initiative (DTI), Independent Teachers’ Front for Social Justice (ITF-SJ), Samajwadi Shikshak Manch (SSM) are together in DUTA elections.

The DTF said that the unity of teachers in the Delhi University has come as the most serious challenges for DU teachers, students, and non-teaching staff.

Unperturbed by this alliance, DUTA president Prof. A.K. Bhagi remains confident about his performance based on his work.

According to him, the pain that the teachers of Delhi University and its affiliated colleges have faced due to ad-hocism and not getting promotion for years is not hidden from anyone. In such a scenario, the Covid-19 crisis had come as a calamity for humanity.

In 2021, the DUTA elected A.K. Bhagi with a resounding majority. “That time was an opportunity to prove that we are different from others. We don’t create a ruckus over problems; instead, provide solutions. This two-year period has been extremely challenging. But the witness of the promptness and good intentions with which the teachers union worked during this period is every ad-hoc teacher who suffered the brunt of ad-hocism for years,” he added.

He said that if any group works to make the process of promotions and appointments smooth, with more than 2800 permanent appointments and promotions of teachers on more than 10,000 units, then it must be discussed
IANS