After the protest and press conference yesterday. April 26, held by the JNUSU, a massive late night rally will be held at the JNU today. The renewed agitation is against the JNU Vice Chancellor and his administration’s decision to unilaterally, without following due process take a set of actions –widely viewed as vindictive and irrational against almost two dozen post graduate students of this prestigious institute of higher education.
Ironically neither reports of the Inquiry Committee nor the reports of the High Power Committee are available in the public domain. Sabrangindia.in had been the first to do a thorough analysis into Magistrate Sanjay Gupta’s report into the incidents at JNU ordered by the Delhi government. This can be read here.
According to reports selectively leaked to the media, Anirban Bhattacharya has been rusticated till July 15, and ‘ordered’ out of bounds for five years from campus from July 25 onwards; Umar Khalid rusticated for one semester and fined Rs 20,000; Mujeeb Gattoo rusticated for two semesters; Kanhaiya Kumar fined Rs 10,000;Ashutosh Kumar ordered ‘withdrawal from hostel for one year and also fine of Rs 20,000; Komal Mohite directed out of the hostel till July 21.Banojyotsana Lahiri and Drupadi Ghosh ordered out of bound of JNU for five years and Saurabh Sharma fined Rs 10,000.Besides, Chintu Kumari, Anant Prakash Narayan, Rama Naga, Gargi Shweta, Aishwarya Adhikari, Reyazul Haque, Rubina Saifi among 14 who've been fined RS 20,000.
President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) Kanhaiya Kumar, who has become an icon now against the vincidtive actions of the Modi government said this yesterday:
साथियो, ख़बर मिली है कि HLEC की रिपोर्ट के आधार पर JNU स्टुडेंट्स पर कार्रवाई की गई है। हालाँ कि, हमको प्रशासन केद्वारा अभी तक कोई नोटिस नहीं मिली है।फिर भी, बिना किसी अपराध को बताये, स्टुडेंट्स का पक्ष सुने बिना, यह कार्रवाई न्याय की हत्या हैऔर सरकारी इशारे परJNU प्रशासन द्वारा की गई इस शर्मनाक कार्रवाई के खिलाफ हम सब मिलकर लड़ेगें और जीतेगें। आज रातको 9 बजे JNUSU ने एक सर्वदलीय बैठक बुलायी है, जिसमें हम आंदोलन की अगली रणनीति को तय करेगें। When oppression is your privilege, Protest is our right.
#StandWithJNU
– Kanhaiya Kumar
Meanwhile, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Associsation (JNUTA) has in a strong communication to Vice Chancellor, Jagadesh Kumar, severly chastised and castigated the running of JNU under his stewardship. The entire letter, signed by President JNUTA Ajay Patnaik and Secretary Bikramaditya Choudhary can be read here. In this letter, the JUNUTA says,
“The teachers of JNU have once again come in front of your office to express their strong protest at the unacceptable attitude adopted by the University Administration under your leadership towards the running of the University. We can discern a clear pattern from the University Administration’s actions that indicates its preference for a highly discretionary and centralized system of governance over a democratic and norm-based one. Indicative of this is the fact that the University Administration has adopted a stony silence to several concerns and issues raised by the JNUTA.
“The decision to impose extremely harsh penalties without fair enquiry in relation to the events of February 9 only serves to prove our point. The JNUTA has pointed out the lack of credibility of the HLEC enquiry process at every stage since its inception and thereafter. It violated the principles of natural justice leading to a situation where students did not or say could not even participate in the enquiry.
You have also been made aware of the fact that this need not have been the case if the established norms and procedures for such enquiries had been followed. The JNUTA’s position has been vindicated by legal luminaries like Justice A.P. Shah and this too has been brought to your notice.
That the Administration chose not to address the issues raised and instead went ahead with imposing harsh penalties on students implies that it would rather make JNU a ruthless penal institution than an upholder of fundamental and foundational principles of running a University. Institutional sensitivity and efforts to restore normalcy on the campus are buried in the whole exercise of “teaching a lesson” to the students.”
The JNUTA has been standing tall against the Administration’s attempts – pressurised by the Modi Government and the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) to break the back of the university’s autonomy and character. An earlier communication of the JNUTA can be read here.