Condemning the arrest of over 100 Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, who were marching to Parliament, the Right to Education (RTE) Forum, an education rights organization, has said that the “ruthless” attack on JNU’s peaceful protesters, who included JNU student’s union president Aishe Ghoshe, is an attack on the their constitutional right.
In a statement, RTE Forum’s Mitra Ranjan said, “The steep fee hike in education at JNU will make education inaccessible to a number of students, coming from deprived socio-economic backgrounds and marginalized communities.” It added, “Education is a public good and a human right, everyone has the right to equitable and quality education and it is the state’s responsibility to ensure this right is safeguarded.”
The RTI Forum noted, “The multiple forms of privatisation which has been emphasized in the New Education Policy (NEP) final draft is a violation of the constitutional right to education and completely denigrates the importance of public education in a democracy.”
Supporting the JNU students’ demands, it said, the students were only “demanding for their right to education and protection of their university from the clutches of edu-preneurs and private investors”, adding, “It reveals the lack of political will and regressive undemocratic use of violence to curb the voices of students demanding equitable education for all.”
According to the statement, “The staggering hike fee at JNU is a clear evidence of the looming privatization of education and this will push out many students from the system of education. Privatization will lead to increased shrinking of public investment and proliferate the existing inequality in education.”