Kerala students not being admitted on flimsy grounds: SFI

NEW DELHI: The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) on Wednesday alleged that top scorers from the Kerala state board were being denied admission on flimsy grounds by various Delhi University colleges in a controversy that erupted amid condemnation of a physics professor from Kirori Mal College who coined a communally sensitive and derogatory term -“marks jihad” -- to contend that students from the state were being given higher marks in Class 12 so that they could systematically take over the country’s top higher education institutes.

The professor, Rakesh Pandey, is a member of a right-wing teachers’ group , National Democratic Teachers’ Front (NDTF).

“The phenomenon of Kerala board giving 100% to students in class 12 is not normal. These students cannot converse in Hindi or English properly yet they are choosing to come to Delhi University. There is some conspiracy and plan behind this. Kerala is known to be a Leftist hub. They had JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) under their control but DU (Delhi University) could not be under their grip. They know it is easy to get in DU if students have 100% marks and there must be some reason that they are occupying campus colleges,” he told HT when asked about his comments on Facebook, which effectively made the same argument and alleged that “for the last few years, Kerala board is implementing #marksjihad”.

NDTF declined to comment on the matter.

DU academic council member Naveen Gaur said, “This is absurdity of the highest order. Delhi University too has seen inflation of marks since 2010 and marks inflation is a concern but targeting a state board and hinting Leftist conspiracy doesn’t make sense. The concerned teacher had made similar comments last year as well.”

The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-linked SFI, meanwhile, said in a statement that DU must “stop discriminating against” students from Kerala state board.

“It has come to our attention that certain colleges are rejecting applications without stating any substantial reason or withholding applications arbitrarily stating ‘clarifications to be sought from the university’. DU is bound to admit students satisfying all the eligibility criteria, it is a matter of shame that applicants are being discriminated against based on their board,” second-year law student Akhil KM, who is convener at SFI-DU, wrote in the statement.

The university, however, denied the charge.

According to admissions committee members of several colleges, students from the Kerala state board had mark sheets under two names– Board of Higher Secondary Examination and Directorate of Higher Secondary Education. The list of approved boards only had the former’s name, leading to confusion. The university officials later found out that both the boards were eligible for admission.

Abdullah Abdul Hameed, an English teacher working with the admissions team at Zakir Hussain College, said, “There was a confusion regarding the nomenclature of Kerala Board since different terminologies are used by the Government of Kerala on different platforms for the same board. The university has issued multiple notifications in this regard. We have received clarification and all eligible candidates are expected to be approved by Thursday, 5pm.”

According to data shared by the university, out of over 250,000 applicants for admissions this year, only 4,824 are from the Kerala board.