To: Prof. Rajan Harshe, Vice Chancellor, Allahabad University , Allahabad, UP, India

Dated: 16th September, 2009

Sub: Protest against privatization of education agenda.

Dear Prof. Harshe,

Your decision to launch a self-financed B.A. in Media Studies programme through the in-house Instiute for Profession Studies (IPS) inspite of the presence of an independent Department of Journalism and Mass Communication in your Univeristy has invoked strong protest from the students, faculty and intellectuals outside. The objective of IPS was to generate resources for your Univeristy. But since Allahabad Univeristy (AU) has become a central univeristy you're not even able to utilize your full grant for the year.

We believe education is not a market commodity and your abovmentioned initiative is privatization of education at the cost of diluting quality and demoralizing an already existing Department by floating a parallel programme.

We urge you to resist the temptation of privatization and strengthen the mainstream programmes with central funding available to you.

We support the ongoing struggle on and outisde the campus of AU against privatization of education and express solidarity with the struggling students and faculty members on campus.

Sincerely,

Dr Sandeep Pandey
National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM)