DU – centre of yet another controversy

Delhi University, DU,  has once again gifted Dilliwalahs a reason to stretch their chai debates into late-evening sparring over something stronger. This time, the provocation came courtesy Ms Smita Prakash, Editor-in-chief for ANI, who found herself at the centre of yet another controversy – this one featuring a rather unwelcoming reception at Miranda House.

Invited as chief guest, Ms Prakash arrived on time, only to encounter a venue notable for its emptiness: no students, no faculty, just the echo of what might have been. She promptly took to social media, ensuring the episode travelled well beyond campus and into the ever-hungry news cycle. Predictably, reactions split along ideological lines: sympathisers rallied around the journalist, while critics, many already inclined to see her as an articulate extension of the establishment, were less forgiving – some even faintly celebratory.

As organisers issued an apology, a parallel chorus, as always is the case in Delhi, dismissed her public outcry as something “emanating from an inflated sense of entitlement”. Protocol, they insisted, had been slighted. A chief guest, by tradition, must first call on the Principal before being ceremoniously escorted. Why bypass the ritual and head straight to the stage, they asked, as if the missing audience were merely a footnote to the real breach.*

Another girls’ college of Delhi University, while our law-makers remained busy theorising Women’s Empowerment in well-upholstered rooms of that monstrous building they call New Parliament House, decided to conduct a live demonstration. At Gargi College in South Delhi, a group of students gathered in formidable numbers and did what policy papers often promise but rarely deliver: they chased away a set of student leaders and their enthusiastic associates, accusing them of hooliganism and harassment on campus.

The backdrop, naturally, was student council elections – Delhi’s earliest training ground in the fine arts of disruption and slogan management. But this time, the script didn’t quite go as planned. The students raised slogans of their own, met provocation with uncommon clarity, and asserted – without waiting for permission—their right to a safe and democratic campus. In a city where outrage is often outsourced, they chose to self-produce.

Phones were out, videos were recorded, and before long the episode travelled beyond campus gates into the ever-alert consciousness of Dilliwalahs, who suddenly rediscovered that DU still exists outside nostalgia and cut-off lists. And, as reliably as Delhi summers follow spring, the spotlight swivelled to Delhi Police – the city’s perennial whipping boy. Questions were raised, brows were furrowed, and concerns expressed about campus security, especially in girls’ colleges.

In case regular readers are beginning to suspect that this blog has taken up permanent residence in DU corridors** – rest assured, normal service will resume shortly. We will be back with our usual cast: AK and whatever remains of his dwindling troupe, the ever-agile Chaddhas and Mittals who discovered the virtues of migration mid-journey, Mrs RG, the new LG of Delhi, and the rest of the capital’s well-rehearsed ensemble. 

This brief academic detour notwithstanding, this blogger is positively itching to return to more pressing matters such as the newly announced austerity measures by our globe-trotting supreme leader. Measures that, one assumes, are designed to inspire Dilliwalahs to rediscover the understated charms of Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Panipat and Mathura for their summer holidays – or, for the more adventurous, to jostle for breathing space in the overcrowded hills of Shimla and Mussoorie. All this, of course, while leadership undertakes the far more strenuous burden of “work” trips to destinations like Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Cyprus, Canada and Croatia.

*For those still discomforted by the persistent labelling of Ms Prakash, a revisit to her interview with Kapil Sibal may either reaffirm long-held views – or introduce a fresh set of inconvenient questions. It offers enough material to both reinforce convictions and, depending on one’s persuasion, provoke fresh discomfort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1DhwMDeoT8 

StateOfDelhi Suggests: Tucked away along Siri Fort Road, opposite Gargi College, sits Diggin Café – a space that announces itself less with noise and more with quiet charm. The moment one steps in, there is an immediate shift in mood, as though the city’s urgency has been politely left at the door.

The interiors are cosy and vibrant, thoughtfully put together to create a setting that feels both intimate and alive. There is a gentle serenity here that lends itself equally well to unhurried conversations or solitary pauses. While the menu offers a dependable selection of pastas, pizzas and indulgent shakes, it is not merely the food that draws one back. It is, instead, the café’s distinct sense of place – the easy warmth, the unforced energy, and an ambience that lingers. In many ways, it evokes those quintessential hillside cafés – graceful, soothing, quietly memorable, quite untouched by the protests and activities across the road.

**DU Featured in the previous blog too:

https://stateofdelhi.in/rules-for-organising-protests/