‘Marks jihad’ jibe against DU aspirants from Kerala draws flak

A controversy has broken out over students from Kerala reportedly being denied admission in various Delhi University colleges on flimsy grounds, said the Students Federation of India (SFI) on Wednesday (October 7).

This contentious claim comes in the backdrop of a physics professor, Rakesh Pandey from Kirori Mal College, who lashed out in a Facebook post at what he derogatorily dubbed as the  “marks jihad” practised by Keralites. He alleged 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.

Pandey happens to be member of a right-wing teachers’ group, National Democratic Teachers’ Front (NDTF), said a Hindustan Times report. Talking to HT, Pandey defended his accusation stating that the Kerala board giving 100 per cent to students in class 12 is “not normal”. According to him, the students cannot converse in Hindi or English properly but they were choosing to apply to Delhi University (DU).

“There is some conspiracy and plan behind this,” he alleged adding that Kerala is known to be a Leftist hub. “They had JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) under their control but DU  could not be under their grip. They know it is easy to get in DU if students have 100 per cent marks and there must be some reason that they are occupying campus colleges,” he added explaining his conspiracy theory. Kerala Board has been practising marks-jihad for a couple of years now, he added

Meanwhile, a DU academic council member Naveen Gaur rubbished his claim as absurd. Gaur said that Delhi University too has been witnessing inflation of marks since 2010. Marks inflation itself is a concern but targeting a state board and hinting Leftist conspiracy is stretching it too far, she felt, adding that Pandey had made similar comments last year as well.

Also read: Delhi University to start admission process for UG courses from Monday

The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-linked SFI, issued a statement in which they said that DU must “stop discriminating against” students from Kerala state board. The SFI-DU statement said that it has come to their attention that certain colleges were 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,” said the second-year law student Akhil KM, who is convener at SFI-DU. This accusation was denied by the university, pointed out the HT report.

However, one of the confusions that led to several colleges denying admission was the fact that students from the Kerala state board had mark sheets under two names– Board of Higher Secondary Examination and Directorate of Higher Secondary Education.

According to admissions committee members the list of approved boards only had the former’s name, and this had led to the problem. The university officials later found out that both boards were eligible for admission. The confusion regarding the nomenclature of Kerala Board happened because of the different terminologies used by the Kerala government 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,” said Abdullah Abdul Hameed, an English teacher working with the admissions team at Zakir Hussain College, reported HT.