Petition in support of Dr GN Saibaba

[We have received the following petition in support of Dr. GN Saibaba, who is threatened with eviction by Delhi University, where he is a professor.  Dr. Saibaba is disabled and wheelchair-bound, and an active leader in the people’s movements in India for revolutionary democratic rights.  We urge our readers to sign, and circulate further, this petition to the DU administration, to stop the threatened eviction.  For more information, see internationalistjustice.blogspot.com.  —  Frontlines ed.]

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Please sign the following petition in support of GN Saibaba, which can be found by clicking the link given here:
https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/dr-m-m-pallam-raju-union-minister-for-hrd-government-of-india-prevent-eviction-of-a-disabled-teacher-dr-g-n-saibaba-by-delhi-university?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_after_sign#

Please sign the petition and also forward the link to your contacts who might be interested in signing the petition.

Regards
Hany Babu.
Associate Professor
Department of English
University of Delhi
hanybabu@gmail.com

The text of the petition is reproduced below:

Dr. M. M. Pallam Raju
Minister of Human Resource Development
Government of India

Dear Dr. M. M. Pallam Raju,

We the undersigned are astounded to know that the University of Delhi is
withdrawing a facility provided to a severely disabled teacher of its
College. Taking recourse to technicalities as the benchmark to forcefully
evacuate a disabled teacher ignoring further national and international
developments in law pertaining to the differently-abled is a sad state of
affairs of one of the leading universities in India. Any future perusal by
the university authorities of the question of special accommodation at the
warden’s flat, Gwyer Hall accorded to Dr. G. N. Saibaba cannot ignore the
specific grounds of his 90 percent disability.

Universities should be centres of excellence, where cutting edge ideas are
discussed and deliberated towards building a future which is humane and
compassionate. University of Delhi is witness to a comparatively sizeable
increase in the intake of differently-abled people as faculty, students
and non-teaching staff. Given the fact that there are few Universities in
the country with such intake it becomes imperative that Delhi University
also be a model in providing a humane and dignified space for the
differently-abled. And this demands urgently a disable-sensitive
administration which is humanely conversant with the new developments in
jurisprudence pertaining to the differently-abled.

Sudan police raid campus, arrest hundreds of activists

Fri Feb 17, 2012

KHARTOUM Feb 17 (Reuters) – Sudanese police arrested hundreds of students in a pre-dawn raid on a major university’s dormitories on Friday, activists said, in a crackdown on a campus that has been at the centre of recent anti-government protests.

The University of Khartoum in the Sudanese capital has been closed for about two months after students staged demonstrations over rising prices, unemployment and other issues.

Police wielding batons entered the student housing early on Friday morning, beating and arresting hundreds of those who had remained in the dormitories waiting for classes to resume, a witness said.

“We were woken in our rooms by the voices and strikes of the police,” said the witness, who asked not to be identified. He said more than 300 students had been arrested.

Sudan’s police spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the reports.

A lawyer who has been monitoring the events, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said police had arrested between 300 to 400 students under a law against inciting unrest.

An activist from the group “Change Now” also confirmed the raid had taken place.

Sudan has not seen mass protests like the ones that ousted leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, but small demonstrations inspired by revolts in other Arab countries have flared up over the past year over inflation and other issues. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Writing by Alessandra Rizzo)

Arundhati Roy: “A few “pre-revolutionary” thoughts I had”

by Arundhati Roy at the People’s University, Washington Sq. Park, New York, November 16, 2011

opednews.com

Tuesday morning, the police cleared Zuccotti Park, but today the people are back. The police should know that this protest is not a battle for territory. We’re not fighting for the right to occupy a park here or there. We are fighting for justice. Justice, not just for the people of the US, but for everybody.

What you have achieved since September 17th, when the Occupy movement began in the United States, is to introduce a new imagination, a new political language into the heart of empire. You have reintroduced the right to dream into a system that tried to turn everybody into zombies, mesmerized into equating mindless consumerism with happiness and fulfillment.

As a writer, let me tell you, this is an immense achievement. And I cannot thank you enough.

We were talking about justice.

Students and police face off in Bogota protest

September 23, 2011

Colombian authorities and students faced off Thursday, with stun guns, tear gas, stones, and potato bombs at a university protest in Bogota, reported Caracol Radio.

The protest, involving at least 100 students of the Universidad Distrital, blocked Avenida Circunvalar, close to Calle 28, a roadway in the north of the capital city. Students were protesting reform measures being passed on Colombia’s higher education systems.

Police officers realized Thursday that protesters had stolen nine .38 caliber revolvers from private security staff working for the university during the riot.

At the protest site, students have been fighting with stones and potato bombs. In response, anti-riot police have been trying to control the protesters using stun guns, tear gas, and water canons.

At the height of the madness, an anti-riot police officer was wounded in the arm by an explosive device thrown at members of the police force.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/19183-students-and-police-face-off-in-bogota-protest.html

Students’ Victory in University of Puerto Rico Confict

June 17, 2010

After more than four hours of discussion, student leaders from the National Bargaining Committee and the University of Puerto Rico administration signed and certified the final agreement which could soon bring an end to  the 55-day strike at the UPR. The NBC leadership achieved the four fundamental claims the students had continuously insisted on.  The students at all 11 campuses must still ratify the agreements.  The issue of penalties for the striking had been the stalemate that impeded the agreement.

Wednesday, after a heated debate among  members of the Board of Trustees, a consensus on language was finally reached.

INS learned that the intervention of trustee and UPR ex President Norman Maldonado, was key in convincing Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees Ygrí Rivera, to drop her consistent hard line regarding the application of penalties to the strikers. Maldonado had not previously intervened because he was off the island.