Fergusson College claimed the fund-raising was ‘voluntary’. (File)A group of Fergusson College students, hailing from drought-affected districts in the state, has slammed the Deccan Education Society (DES) administration over its recent “directives” to staffers to collect donations for a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-linked NGO for the “drought relief” work.
According to the students, the college administration has turned a blind eye to the sufferings of students coming from drought-hit areas by refusing to give them relief in various fees, even after the Pune University issued circulars to the effect. The students also said the administration has hiked annual tuition fees as well as monthly mess bills.
As reported by The Indian Express on June 12, teaching and non-teaching staffers at the college were given donation collection books of RSS’ Jan Kalyan Samiti by the administration, following directives from the top leadership of DES, which runs around three dozen educational institutions in the state, including Fergusson College. DES is headed by Sharad Kunte, who has been associated with the RSS and had earlier headed the Pune unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Controversy’s own Deccan Edu Society
It is not the first time that the Deccan Education Society (DES) has been embroiled in a controversy pertaining to its association with the RSS. Be it students inviting a speaker from ideological Left only for the DES to deny permission or the administration abruptly transferring professors seen as sympathetic to student groups agitating against the management, the DES has been in the news more often for wrong reasons. The current issue further muddies the water with RSS-linked chief of the DES allegedly using his authority to fund activities of the NGO, which has very little connection with the college otherwise.
While DES and the college claimed that the fund-raising work was “voluntary”, college staffers of various ranks said it did not seem so to them from the way the instructions were conveyed to the staff and the manner in which receipt books were distributed using official channels. Kunte said the DES collected about Rs 13 lakh from the drive which will handed over to Samiti, which is involved in drought-relief efforts in the state.
On Friday, a group of about 30 students, hailing from drought-affected districts in Marathwada and Vidarbha, met college principal Ravindrasinh Pardeshi and Chairman Sharad Kunte, conveying its displeasure over “the duplicity of administration”.
“We were shocked when we learnt what the administration has done. First of all, it is unethical to pressurise staffers of the college to collect funds for a partisan organisation. Secondly, the college being an education institution should worry more about students like us, who are staying within the campus and are terribly affected by the drought back home… In such a situation, it is the primary responsibility of the college to look after us than to give money to an NGO linked to the RSS to conduct work at undisclosed locations,” said Sunil Jadhav, a final year student of BA (Economics).
The students’ group has demanded that the DES administration should waive off the tution fee for the current academic year (2019-2020) and arrange to provide free meals twice a day for students from drought-affected districts. “We met Sharad Kunte, who promised us that the organisation will think about our proposal,” said a student from the group.
