The former director of Delhi University’s Delhi School of Economics (DSE), Partha Sen, has declined to join the institute’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, which start Friday, because of the “recent construction activities on the premises”, The Indian Express has learnt.
On February 25 last year, The Indian Express reported about the varsity’s plans to expand the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) to the DSE campus lawns which sparked concerns among alumni, professors and students.
The FMS is adjacent to the DSE campus, with a fence separating the two. A new FMS building is set to come up on the Lecture Theatre (LT) lawns near DSE’s Agriculture Economics Research Centre.
On August 4, DSE director Ram Singh had written to all the former directors of the institute to “attend a felicitation session on August 17… as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations from August 16-17.”
To this, Sen responded: “I am unable to join the ‘celebrations’ because of the recent construction activities on the school premises. The present dispensation seems to treat the premises like a piece of real estate. Eight-storeyed buildings and the rest (effectively) a parking lot. Some of us had written a letter, expressing our apprehension. Did we even get a reply from the university authorities, explaining their position?”
“I think the role of my erstwhile junior colleagues also is not glorious. ‘Capitulation’ is too weak an expression. So, please excuse me. And let me recall my ‘Dschool’ days by closing my eyes… to recall the good times I spent there as a student and, later, as a faculty member. Closing my eyes also to the crass commercialisation of the school’s premises,” Sen added.
The Indian Express contacted DSE director for comment but received no response.
Last year, a petition was signed by 248 people, including 56 current and former faculty members, 29 research scholars and 163 postgraduate students of DSE, which stated: “The DSE campus is among the few spaces in North Campus (unlike most colleges) that is truly open access. We pride ourselves on providing a safe and welcoming space to students and teachers from all departments and colleges. The LT lawns are an important and integral part of the shrinking university commons. These lawns are the collective heritage of the university community and we are all custodians of this heritage.”
Signatories included economist Jean Dreze; former DSE director professor Santosh Panda; Satish Deshpande, a researcher at DU’s Department of Sociology; and Indrani Gupta, professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi.
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