STEEL-Failures from Diffidence

non-teaching staff and students expressed full support to the teachers' proposed brtndh. But in a midnight meeting on August 21, the bandh decision was reversed. The leadership was in favour of calling off the bandh in view of the fact that "the consideration of the DU (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sahha had been postponed by a week''! On the other hand, several members of the 12-member Action Committee criticised the decision on the grounds that it would weaken the movement. The Delhi University and College Karma- chari Union and the Varsity Students Union also did not favour calling it off at such a short notice. Next morning, a section of teachers described the move as a volte face by the DUTA President, Kumaresh Chakravarty. Subsequently, the DUTA also lost the support of the Students Union President, Bhagwan Singh. The movement, to the liking of the authorities, remains disrupted, divided, and without the strength of the teachers' unity which was earlier witnessed for the first time in the 50-year history of the University.