People's Democracy

DTF Wins DUTA Presidentship

Vijender Sharma

DEMOCRATIC Teachers' Front (DTF) has won the Presidentship of Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) for which the elections took place on August 31, 2005. DTF candidate Amar Deo Sharma got 1446 votes and defeated its nearest rival, who was a joint candidate of the Congress backed INTEC and its breakaway faction, Academics for Action and Development (AAD), by a margin of 12 votes. The BJP backed candidate came third. In the last DUTA elections held in August 2003, INTEC-AAD joint candidate had won by a margin of about 700 votes. The INTEC-AAD combine had to face this humiliating defeat for several reasons.

The DUTA elections took place in the background where the challenges before the teaching community were mounting even as the strength of the DUTA had been significantly eroded during the last two years. Lack of focus on any set of issues; an absence of articulation of demands, no attempts to discuss issues with the teachers and mobilise them for mass actions but rather a series of sporadic token strikes interspersed with holidays, a sectarian approach to pursue certain demands and sabotage resolution of others – this has been the style of functioning of the DUTA leadership over the last two years which had contributed only to a widespread sense of helplessness and demoralisation amongst teachers. This experience once again proved that INTEC-AAD (Congress) leadership was no different from the NDTF (BJP) in its refusal to build up a mass movement on teachers' demands.

The DTF focused on select substantive issues on which INTEC-AAD and the NDTF had consistently failed the teaching community. The UPA government virtually approved the NDA government's backtracking on written agreements with the teachers on the third promotion and other service benefits. It continued to pursue the privatisation and commercialisation of higher education. The outgoing DUTA president had shown no inclination to take on either the BJP led NDA government or the Congress led UPA. No struggle was organised for the fulfillment of the long-pending demands of the teachers. The demand of the third promotion and promotion to professorship in colleges and implementation of all benefits emanating from the last pay revision with effect from 1.1.1996 was absolutely ignored by the leadership. Even on individual grievances the DUTA leadership did not help the teachers.

The outgoing DUTA president sabotaged the implementation of the major recommendations of the Agnihotri Committee to end the large-scale harassment and exploitation of adhoc teachers and ensure permanent appointments of around 1000 teachers. The mechinations of AAD and NDTF resulted in the revised composition of selection committees for lecturers and principals in colleges by which the Vice Chancellor and chairmen of the Governing Bodies of colleges have become all powerful. This leadership bungled on the reemployment issue as well.

It was most shocking to note the deafening silence of the INTEC-AAD leadership of the DUTA on the new pension scheme applicable to all teachers who have been appointed on and after January 1, 2005, which was brought by the NDA government and implemented by the UPA government.

On the other hand, the teachers at large witnessed and appreciated the resistance put by the Left Parties led by the CPI(M) at the central level on the issues like new pension scheme, PF interest rates, disinvestment of BHEL, raising FDI limits in insurance, oil price hikes, Private Universities Bill, etc. The principled position of the Left has compelled the Congress into agreeing to Employment Guarantee Bill and retrace its steps toward an abashed defence of its role in the carnage of thousands of Sikhs in 1984. In this background teachers responded positively in the current elections and inflicted a defeat on the INTEC-AAD combine candidate.

The DTF put up four candidates for four of the fifteen members of the DUTA Executive. Three candidates Renu Bala, Sheodatt and Pankaj Sinha won for the DUTA Executive.