JNU fee hike | SabrangIndia

JNU‘s fee hike fight an eyesore for the admin and Govt.?

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 04:51:52 +0000

Image Courtesy: indiatoday.in

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has now for some time been in the throes of controversy and has become a hotbed of violence against students.

On January 5, 2020, alleged right-wing goons from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) unleashed their horror on the students and teachers alike, beating them up with iron rods, brutally injuring them and damaging property at the campus.

Since then, news channels have erupted with shrill opinions, some claiming that the Left leaders themselves staged a fake attack to paint a false picture of the right-wing and others claiming that it was in fact an attack by the ABVP to quell the ongoing strike at the JNU.

What actually happened?

Since November 2019, JNU has been fighting for affordable education ever since the Inter Hall Administration (IHA) announced an almost 300% fee hike, putting the education of students from the backward and marginalized communities at risk.

The JNU students union (JNUSU) came down heavily on the administration for not taking the say of the main stakeholders – the students. Massive protests broke out, with the students taking to the streets and raising slogans against the administration for ordering the fee hike and demanding that it be completely revoked.

The protest went on for weeks, but took a turn for the worst when on the day of convocation, thousands of students came out on the roads and were met with violence by the Delhi Police which baton-charged them and used water cannons to stop them. Students were brutally beaten up by the cops and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was brought in to disperse the protestors.

Because a public-funded university was being put on the path of privatisation, the students fought tooth and nail, injuries notwithstanding, to get the administration to revoke the fee hike. However, the treatment meted out to the students by the administration was utterly disappointing, with the Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, not even once making an effort to address the issues fof the students.

Seeing the intensity of the protest, the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) intervened, but did not offer any solution to the students. The protest stretched through the month of December 2019 and the students decided to boycott their semester examinations which were to take place at the start of the New Year 2020.

The CAA-NRC protests

While the JNU was fighting its own fight for affordable education, protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) gripped the capital. Peacefully protesting students at the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMIU) were brutally attacked by the Delhi Police and JNU came out in support of Jamia, calling for an overnight stir.

What happened on January 5, 2020 and what it was actually made out to be

After the JNU violence on January 5, Union Home Minister had in a speech asked Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi whom he was trying to save, referring to the students as members of the ‘tukde tukde’ gang that must be punished.

Coined by the right-wing and its affiliates after the JNU campus unrest in 2016 which saw the arrest of then JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar after he chanted for ‘azaadi’, the ‘tukde tukde’ gang is now referred to anyone the right-wingers feel is anti-India and out to divide the country.

The JNU students knew they couldn’t let down their guard or give up their fight in anyway because their fee hike was not yet recalled. In light of this, they had decided to boycott the semester examination registrations which were to be held starting January 1 and were to end on January 5.

On January 4, allegedly to break the strike and instill fear among the students, the security staff was roped in, reported the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM). Later in the day, allegedly some ABVP activists were caught on camera attacking the protesting students, including the women and pelted stones at them.

To protest against this violence, the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) had called for a meeting on campus on January 5, 2020. This was when a group of around 50 masked goons entered the campus and started targeting JNUSU official bearers and students. A few distress calls were made for help, but no student was allowed on campus post the incident. The Delhi Police, after written permission, got into the campus to take stock of the situation.

Many reports carried information that the Left had orchestrated the attack against the ABVP students who had gone for exam registrations on January 4 and that the security guards employed with ‘Cyclops’, the company that managed the security arrangements at JNU and the guards of which were conspicuously missing during the attack on January 5; were also beaten up.

However, evidence has come to light, clearly connecting the ABVP to the violence at JNU.

A WhatsApp group with the name ‘Unity against Left’ was formed. Newslaundry, got into the group and unraveled some truths that showed a clear conspiracy by the ABVP.

https://twitter.com/someshjha7/status/1213847511682519040

Screenshots of a Whatsapp group named ‘Unity against left’ doing the rounds showing how the violence inside the JNU campus was orchestrated. This is the latest one: pic.twitter.com/Q182mBapX0

— Somesh Jha (@someshjha7) January 5, 2020

Also, in on it were the people of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

https://twitter.com/someshjha7/status/1213885500773163008

And btw, this is a screenshot from another WA group. Look at the names here. Maybe they are your friends? pic.twitter.com/3DmoNcitVR

— Somesh Jha (@someshjha7) January 5, 2020

Chats that clearly called for violence.

https://twitter.com/SunilAmbhore20/status/1213900016227631105

So a WhatsApp group of RSS- Bajrang Dal- ABVP has been created to orchestrate violence. Some chats are as following:
1- Main gate par Kya karna hai.
2- Police nahi aayegi.
3- VC apna hai

This is an organised violence. pic.twitter.com/BrFNAnC5g6

— Sunil Ambhore (@SunilAmbhore20) January 5, 2020

Newslaundry reported that 9 of the 18 admins of the WA group were from the ABVP. Manish Jangid, one of the admins and the ABVP secretary had apparently conveyed to the BJP, as Amit Malviya tweeted, that the left backed student unions were targeting members of the ABVP so that academic sessions could be disrupted.

The below is a list of the people who were group admins. They were identified using True Caller, their WA Display Pics and a Facebook profile search.

1. Venkat Choubey ABVP: Joint Secretary Candidate Candidate JNUSU 2018-19

2. Velentina Bramha: ABVP Activisit from Delhi

3. Vijay Kumar: ABVP JNU Vibhag Sanyojak

4. Devendr Kumar: ABVP Member

5. Sumanta Sahu: ABVP Joint Secretary Candidate JNUSU 2019

6. Manish Jangid: ABVP Presidential Candidate JNUSU 2019

7. Ambuj Mishra: ABVP Media and Social Media Convener

8. Yogendra Bharadwaj: ABVP JNUSUJoint Secretary Candidate 2017-18

9. Anima Sonkar: ABVP Delhi Joint Secretary

Newslaundry did not find any incriminatory utterances, they did find some statements that pointed out to a crafting a plan. A conversation about the injury of Aishe Ghosh, could point out that the ABVP did not feel any regret for what had happened.

ocial media is flooded with screenshots of this group where people have made the following incendiary statements that point towards some sort of “planning”:

#1. “Nahi. VC ne entry mana kiya hai. Apna VC hai.” (No. VC has disallowed them [Delhi Police] from entering. VC is ours.)

#2. “Agar jana he to Sabarmati hostel jao.. waha sab karykarta jama hai.” (If you want to go, go to Sabarmati hostel… there all our karyakartas have gathered.)

#3. “आइशी का सर फटा है। अभी सीरियस है वो.. बचेगी नही शायद.” (Aishi has a serious head injury. She’s serious… might not survive.)

To this one person responded with #4: “बढ़िया हुआ, अभी तो चुन–चुन कद इन देश द्रोहियो को मारना है.” (Good, now we have to identify and kill all these traitors.)

The search done by Anand Mangale, formerly associated with Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), a firm started by Prashant Kishore show that though none of these statements make anyone guilty, they do make the members of ABVP strong suspects.

JNU has always been synonymous with courage. It has had student leaders bear the brunt of the state and the police, it has had student leaders being detained and it has had students and teachers being beaten up and become victims of state-sponsored terror time and again.

Because JNU has a strong voice, whether in Kanhaiya Kumar or Aishe Ghosh, repeated efforts have made to quell it. JNU has always stood for the ones who never got a say. In this fight against the fee hike, it was wanting that the poor and the marginalized not be left out of the fold of a good education that they deserved.

No student of JNU has ever feared being political, but the University’s sincere efforts to save the system and its students from the hands of a few rich and privileged have been diverted by a rigid ruling government that has time and again looked to quash it by terming it ‘anti-national’ or ‘urban naxals’ or members of the ‘tukde tukde’ gang.

JNU has always fought against oppression and for the rights of others. The unveiling of the truth behind the attack and the horror unleashed on students and teachers, followed by an outpouring of solidarity from the nation, just go to show that JNU has and will always stand for causes that matter and will never lose courage in the face of difficulty.

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2nd lathicharge in 40 days on JNU students by Delhi Police

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 04:05:08 +0000

The Delhi police has come down heavily on the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) once again as they were marching towards Rashtrapati Bhavan to register their protest against the almost 300% fee hike imposed on them by the Inter Hall Administration.

This is the 42^nd day of the JNU agitation against the fee hike.

Reports say that at first the students weren’t allowed to march towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan, but after negotiations with Delhi police officials, the students were given a designated place outside Sarojini Nagar to hold their dharna.

The police resorted to lathi charge when protesting students tried to cross the Bhikaji Cama Place metro station that had been cordoned off by the police, when they tried to take a different route to Sarojini Nagar. Speaking to media channels, student leader Aishe Ghosh said that the police have singled out students and detained them after the lathi charge in which many students have been grievously injured.

#Live | The national capital witness massive drama after @DelhIPolice lathi charge at the students of JNU who protest against the fee hike in the campus.

TIMES NOW’s Waji & Kangana with ground details. Listen in. pic.twitter.com/jvqi7CcALH

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) December 9, 2019

The students have been on a month-long protest against the fee hike which the university has refused to roll back. The university had offered a peace making gesture in the garb of an amendment, but students claim that the move was simply an eyewash to take away the attention from their protest.

Shame on you Delhi Police

Once again @DelhiPolice lathy charged peacefully marching JNU students

Education is our constitutional Right. We will not go back an inch until you withdraw the draconian IHA manual#JNUProtests #JNU pic.twitter.com/fAhFkQy3Xz

— Vishnu Prazad (@Vishnu_Prazad) December 9, 2019

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) had earlier written to the President Ram Nath Kovind demanding an immediate rollback of the fee hike, the resignation of the Vice Chancellor and the withdrawal of all police cases lodged against the students.

On Monday morning, December 9, the police had increased security around JNU and appealed to the students to not resort to violence. Entry and exit points of the Udyog Bhawan, Lok Kalyan Marg and Central Secretariat Metro stations were also closed over concerns that the students may use the intra-city rail system to make their way to Rashtrapati Bhawan, reported NDTV.

JNUSU President N Sai Balaji who has been detained along with some other students has accused the administration of lying that the students had boycotted their exams. He has asked why the administration is not revoking the fee hike. He also said nobody from the MHRD or the university has come forward to discuss the issue.

There is heavy police presence at the site and while some students have been dispersed, most of them have been illegally detained and taken to separate police stations so that they can’t gather back and stage a protest.

This is the second time in the last forty days that the students have endured a lathi charge by the police. The first time around too there had been several casualties and students had accused the police of manhandling and assaulting them.

Currently, there is a standoff situation between the students and the police with the students that their detained fellow mates be immediately brought back to wherever they were taken.

The JNU and other public funded universities have been a haven for children from economically backward sections of society. The students have been unrelenting in their quest for affordable education, especially because the fee hike was an autonomous decision of the university and it didn’t take the opinion of the main stakeholders – the students’ view into account. Since the protests have erupted, the Vice Chancellor Mamidala has refused to meet with the students and listen to their demands.

The students had started on a peaceful march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to make their pleas heard to the President against the draconian IHA manual which they saw as a last resort after the concerned authorities had shown indifference to their plight. There has been no decision made on the rollback yet. However, it is to be seen whether or not the second atrocious attack of the police will dampen their spirit and tire them out in their fight against the system.

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After JNU, its neighbour IIMC protests against fee hike

Wed, 04 Dec 2019 13:02:24 +0000

The fight for affordable education taken up staunchly by the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has now spread like wildfire to other students facing oppression by the government. Picking out a leaf from JNU’s book, the students of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi staged a strike on December 3 against the ‘high’ tuition fee and unruly hostel and mess charges.

IIMC is an autonomous society falling under the umbrella of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and it is known to be one of the best media institutes in India. Societies like the IIMC are supposed to run on a no profit, no loss basis, but students say that the fees at IIMC are extremely high and are increased at a rate of 10% every year.

Students also said that the fee for a course in Radio and TV Journalism stands at Rs. 168,500 while the fee for the Advertising and PR course is Rs. 131,500. The Hindi and English Journalism fees are Rs. 95,000 and the fee for Urdu Journalism stands at Rs. 55,500.

These are just the course fees, say students. The hostel and mess charges are pegged at Rs. 6500 for girls and 4800 for boys every month. These charges are extremely high and burdensome, especially for children from economically weaker backgrounds. It also doesn’t help that every student here doesn’t get hostel accommodation and the hostel fee is not in accordance with the quality of the rooms provided.

IIMC is a public funded institution just like JNU and students say that for the past week they have been trying to seek a redressal of their issues but the administration has been turning a blind eye to their issues.

The administration, say the students, is not willing to help as it says that altering the fee structure is beyond their power. Hence, after testing all other avenues, the students have called for a protest.

Hrishikesh, a student of the Radio and TV Journalism course at IIMC said, “We cannot allow media institutes to be accessible only to the people who can afford to pay lakhs. Education, after all, is a right and not a privilege.”

People have come out in support of the students and they are being cheered on by fellow students in their protest.

The protest against hostel fee hike at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University spread to the neighbouring #IIMC on Tuesday, where students protested against the “unaffordable fee structure”#JNUProtests #IIMCPROTEST #Protests @PrakashJavdekar @narendramodi_in @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/HPEWhJsxbb

— Brijesh K N Tiwari (@brijeshkntiwari) December 3, 2019

#iimc
Stand in solidarity with students of Indian Institute of Mass Communication in protest against high fees structure in public institutions. Remember, education is not a commodity. #feemustfall pic.twitter.com/ehJLU6RGf1

— Richard Kujur (@IamRCHRD) December 4, 2019

#FeesMustFall spreads to JNU’s neighbouring campus. Students of @IIMC_India protest against fee hike. @IndianExpress @ieDelhi pic.twitter.com/MsDOAJJ3GC

— Anya Shankar (@AnyaShankar) December 3, 2019

₹168500 for a ten-month course in addition to hostel & mess charges, that too in public-funded IIMC! How is it justified?

Does the govt think education is a privilege and not a right?

Why are students forced to protest even for basic demands like right to affordable education? pic.twitter.com/DUivVIblUC

— Anupam | अनुपम (@AnupamConnects) December 4, 2019

What the administration says

Edex Live reports that 90 students are part of the protest and though the administration has told them that a faculty-student grievance committee will be formed to address concerns, it is not guaranteed that the students’ demands will be accepted.

A senior IIMC official said that there is going to be an open house scheduled with the students on December 4 to initiate a dialogue. He said, “The Director-General has already met the students. We were to have another meeting on 15th and we expected a reaction from the students only after that. This was quite unexpected. “We have already acceded to a lot of their demands. One of their demand was to stop the 10 per cent hike in the course fee every year. We, in fact, took a suo motto action against this.”

He also added that there was no interim hike in the fee and that the fee mentioned in the prospectus is collected from the students. Stressing on how important higher education was he said, “Usually, freeships were reimbursed against submission of bills. But this year, we made sure that the students got them awarded right after the entrance examination.” He continued, “Fee hikes is a larger debate which isn’t confined to IIMC alone. But, our courses are mostly skill-based and has a large employability potential. They must be treated akin to self-financing courses in a collegiate system.”

Addressing the quality and unavailability of hostel rooms the official said that it indeed was a challenge to accommodate every student, but they were in talks to construct a larger hostel and were awaiting clearance for the same.

It is now widely acknowledged that fee hikes will prove to be the death of education in India. Education spending in India dropped from 1% of the GDP in the NDA government’s first budget in 2014 to 0.62% in 2017-18. Currently, both the State and Central governments are spending only 3% of the GDP on education.

As if the threat of privatisation wasn’t enough, the government’s arbitrary behaviour with regards to fee hikes is just appalling. Leaving out the most vulnerable sections of society from their rightful share of education, is that the aim of the government?

With aspirational talks about India Rising and it becoming the fastest growing trillion dollar economy, how is the government going to achieve it by keeping bright young minds out of the process?

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JNU Alumni protest fees hike in Kolkata, gets support from several Universities

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 08:27:00 +0000

The protest by JNU Alumni, West Bengal over fees hike in JNU and other parts of the country

Kolkata: Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have been quite vocal and determined about the fee hike proposed by the University management. Students enrolled with the university have not just taken on the streets of Delhi or formed human chains, demanding for an immediate fee roll back, but have given out a call to all the students across India, seeking their support. In response to the call by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU), seeking support from fellow students across India, former students of JNU organised a rally on Wednesday afternoon in Kolkata.

Much to the surprise of the organisers, a healthy number of participants hailing from different cross-section of the society made it to the protest rally, which was flagged off from Raja Subodh Mullick Square to culminate at Entally’s Ramlila Maidan.

Speaking to eNewsroom, Subhanil Chowdhury, professor of economics at Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, said, “I am a former student of JNU and I have seen for close vicinity how the subsidised educational fee allows thousands of brilliant students hailing from the often forgotten section of the society get access to quality education. Hike in fee in public education system, will deprive 40 per cent of JNU students of their right to education. I understand the importance of the JNU movement, where the students have been creating pressure on the government to roll back the fee hike and hence, I am here to stand in solidarity with the demands being made by the students of my Alma Mater.”

“At a time when countries like Norway are making education free, our country is hell bent on increasing the cost of education. If the fees are hiked, where will the poor students go to? Is this a deliberate attempt to make quality education accessible only to the rich and elite class? Are the poor or those who have the courage to dissent to be kept deprived of education? The constant attempts being made to corner JNU students or to saffronise them, is not a healthy sign. I understand the importance of public education and subsidised fee,” said Tanweer Ahmed Khan, secretary of Maulana Azad College’s alumni association.

It was not just Chowdhury, who made sure to be present at the rally on a working day, but several other faculty members, students, student union leaders and even alumni association members of various government colleges and universities of Bengal like Presidency University, University of Calcutta, Jadavpur University, Maulana Azad College and more chose to stand in solidarity with the former students of JNU.

“At a time when countries like Norway are making education free, our country is hell bent on increasing the cost of education. If the fees are hiked, where will the poor students go to? Is this a deliberate attempt to make quality education accessible only to the rich and elite class? Are the poor or those who have the courage to dissent to be kept deprived of education? The constant attempts being made to corner JNU students or to saffronise them, is not a healthy sign. I understand the importance of public education and subsidised fee,” said Tanweer Ahmed Khan, secretary of Maulana Azad College’s alumni association.

Echoing a similar sentiment was Sudipta Bhattacharya, professor of economics at the Viswa Bharti University. He said, “The problem that the JNU students are facing is universal for all Indian students and in not just limited to JNU campus. Students across India enrolled in autonomous universities are having to face a similar issue. Almost a week back, similar protests were seen in our university campus, back then the students were demanding for the admission form price to be reduced. We as the general public need to understand that there is a constant pressure on autonomous universities and colleges to generate their own funds to keep the institutions running. Fee hike is definitely not the best way to make institutes to arrange their own funds.”

When asked that there are many, who are not okay with tax-payers money being spent on JNU students, Chowdhury, said with a dry laugh, “I am cent percent sure that the people saying so, lack the acumen to crack the JNU entrance examination. They have an issue with the taxpayer’s money being spent on education, but are fine with it being spent of statues and foreign trips of politicians.”

“The government needs to understand that autonomy granted to universities and colleges doesn’t boil down to financial autonomy. It means that the university or college is free to take its own decision without the state interference, with respect to their curriculum. On the contrary, we have been witnessing an increasing trend where autonomous educational institutes are being forced to mobilise their own funds. University Grant Commission, has been made redundant, to create space for Higher Education Funding Authority (HEFA), which now has created provision for the universities function not on grants but on loans which it has to recover from its students, which can be done only by hiking the fees,” explained Bhattacharya.

When asked that there are many, who are not okay with tax-payers money being spent on JNU students, Chowdhury, said with a dry laugh, “I am cent percent sure that the people saying so, lack the acumen to crack the JNU entrance examination. They have an issue with the taxpayer’s money being spent on education, but are fine with it being spent of statues and foreign trips of politicians.”

Interestingly, according to a February 2019 CAG report, INR 94,036 set aside for secondary and higher education cess along with INR 7,298 crore for research and development cess have remained unused. So, where did this money go and why is it not being used to meet the expenditure of premium institutes of India like the JNU, IITs and IIMs, are questions that need to be raised not just on the streets but also at the Parliament.

Courtesy: https://enewsroom.in/

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Why fee hikes are the death of education in India

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 08:21:29 +0000


Image Courtesy: Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO

After the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students went up in arms against the imposed fee hike by the Inter Hall Administration, tuition fees across the board face a hike, a move that will affect thousands of students all over India. In Himachal Pradesh, Tribune India reported that students pursuing the two-year B.Ed degree course will also be compelled to shell out Rs. 16,000 more pr year as the government has hiked the fees from Rs. 84,870 to Rs. 98,000 from 2019-21 batch. Besides the tuition fee, the students will be charged additional Rs 10,800, which include Rs 2,060 as amalgamated fund, Rs 3,600 as computer fee and Rs 1,800 each for science practical.

That is not all. A levy of 7 per cent will be payable on the tuition fee of Rs 84,000 for the full course, which works out to be Rs 5,880 per student. The students will also have to pay Rs 1,400 as examination fee for each semester.The total fee and other charges, excluding 7 per cent levy, will be 49,510 for first year and 48,490 for the second year. “The government is adding to the burden of poor people, who take loans for the education of their wards,” said Niharika, who was planning to do BEd in the next session. Clearly, the government is carrying on unheeded.

This is just another recent revelation about how publicly-funded higher education institutions are ironically becoming costlier for the general public to avail of. In the wake of these protests, not only from JNU, but also from IIT students, students from Jadavpur University and the Uttarakhand Ayurveda Colleges, etc. it is imperative to figure out what the major stakeholders – the students lose out on if the administrations and government get their way.

Fee structures – Public vs. Private

In India, education has started to be seen increasingly as a consumer service that is directly related to an individual’s financial capital. The more money you have, the more you are ‘eligible’ for better education. All this is also because of the chest-thumping of private institutions that claim to be the only providers of good quality higher education.

In the last five years the private education industry in India has nearly doubled in size. Research shows that the revenues of this sector stood at $97.8 billion in 2016 and are projected to reach $180 billion in 2020.

Compared to this, Education spending dropped from 1% of GDP in the NDA government’s first budget in 2014 to 0.62% in 2017-18. Its share in the budget has been slashed from 6.15% to 3.7%.

The fee hike — set to come into effect from the next academic year — will nearly double the annual fee for JNU students living in hostels from the current Rs 27,600-32,000 annually up to Rs 55,000-61,000.With the revised fee structure that will come into effect next year, JNU is set to become the most expensive central university, tipping off even Delhi University sitting at the top of the table with a fee of Rs. 40,000 – Rs. 50,000 per year.

Allahabad University students have to pay Rs 28,500 (on an average) annually for both food and accommodation. The Banaras Hindu University is cheaper, with students having to pay an average of Rs 27,400 annually. Uttar Pradesh’s other major central university, AMU, is significantly cheaper at Rs 14,400.

At Delhi’s JamiaMilliaIslamia, the annual fee is Rs 35,000.The Vishva-Bharti University in West Bengal charges between Rs 21,600 and Rs 30,400 annually.

(Source – The Print)

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS)

Many students are now forced to give up fields like engineering or medicine, all owing the sky rocketing fee structures they come with. Currently, private universities charge between Rs. 30 lakh and Rs. 1.2 crore for MBBS and Rs. 1 – 3 crore for MS and MD.

This, compared to doing an MBBS course at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where the fees for the entire course is currentlyless than Rs. 8000 for the 5.5 year course.

However, going with the current trend of fee hikes, even AIIMS is looking to increase its tuition fee to Rs. 50,000 – Rs. 70,000 per year for the course. The ostensible reason?At present, the government gives nearly Rs 3,500 crore to AIIMS-Delhi per year and Rs 300-500 crore each to 14 other functional AIIMS.

An internal analysis on cost of education by AIIMS-Delhi sometime back had found that the government spends over Rs 1 crore per student for the MBBS course there.“We are asking these institutes to at least generate Rs 70-75 crore every year through charging for MBBS programmes and patients services,” a senior ministry official said to the Indian Express. Currently, AIIMS-Delhi generates only Rs 2-3 each crore.

However this argument evades the very purpose of setting up an institute like AIMS where the issue of medical education and training is intrinsically linked to public health services and quality medial attention for all. Over 13,000 patients visit the AIIMS out-patient clinics every day and these are parients from all over the country and a vast majority from a strata who would not be able to access medical treatment if fees were hiked (both of education and services).Another 2,000 ptientsare admitted for treatment in the network of six hospitals affiliated/attached to AIMS.

Now while JNU students have put up a robust protest around the proposed fee hike, Hindustan Times reports that the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has begun a process to review the fee it charges from patients as well as students, a process that could make treatments and studying in one of India’s finest medical institutions more expensive. The memorandum has been issued by the GOI’s Finance Ministry. The memorandum, accessed by HT, was issued after the Central Institute Body of six AIIMS, including AIIMS Delhi, decided to review the tuition fee of students and make user charges for patients uniform across all AIIMS.

The fee for students may also increase from the total tuition of ₹7,640 for the 5.5-year MBBS course.There are 100 MBBS seats for Indians and seven for foreign nationals at AIIMS Delhi, which is ranked first among medical institutes by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the human resource development ministry.

Why the fee hike anywhere means a loss of merit and education

The hike in the Himachal University B.ed college fees came as a double blow after reports of admitting students not based on merit surfaced. With cut-offs as low as 30 percent, the professors too wondered what was the need of the entrance exam if the government had to enroll in quantity and not quality.

With NEET too, to fill a total of 61,000 seats, the ranks of the students who got admission went all the way down to 8.45 lakh, reported the Economic Times. In many of the private colleges where students with very low scores have got admission, the annual fee ranges from Rs 17 lakh to Rs 23 lakh for regular seats. For NRI seats, it goes up to Rs 33 lakh per year. The cost of the MBBS course in such colleges would be well beyond a crore, once hostel fees, exam fees and various other charges are added. For a large number of students with high scores, this would be way beyond reach.

Because the percentile cut off being set abysmally low allows a ratio of 1:13, or 13 qualified students being available for each seat, helping colleges go down the list of ‘qualified’ NEET candidates till they find ones who can afford the fees they charge. Thus, instead of a merit-based selection, it becomes a money-based selection, at least for most of the private colleges. Raising cut-offs would reduce the ‘demand’ in this market for seats and hence force the ‘sellers’ to lower their price (the fees), as with any commodity.

India’s human development figures are dismal: 85% of the population of the country is practically poor, with an income of below Rs. 10,000 per month. Specifically with regards to JNU, if the fee hike is implemented, 40 percent of the students will be at risk of being abandoned.

The Indian education system has seen many privatisation attempts. The Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), a joint venture of Canara Bank and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) was supposed to provide financial assistance for the creation of educational infrastructure, and for research and development in Indian universities. Curiously, HEFA funding will replace the current grant assistance given by the government of India towards the infrastructure projects of higher educational institutions.

So where will HEFA get its funds from? The Wire reports that it will mobilise resources from the market on the basis of equity from individuals or corporate entities through bonds, to finance the requirements of educational institutions.

Last year, the government proposed that those universities and colleges which have performed very well consistently over a period of time, especially on the National Assessment and Accreditation Council’s (NAAC) scale, will be given complete autonomy. This came with a rider. Institutions have to raise the money they need on their own and this will naturally be done by charging very high fees from students and also through ‘public-private partnerships’. When we examine what this autonomy entails for public universities in India, it becomes clear that it amounts to nothing but an enhanced push for the commercialisation of public institutions, particularly, universities. This again means that money, not democracy, social justice and merit will govern their policies and functioning.s

Apart from the above measures, the MHRD had earlier come up with a 70:30 formula, where central universities were asked to generate at least 30% of their funding on their own. Corporatisation of education will also mean that the market will decide which courses are to be offered and which not. This essentially means courses in the humanities and social sciences will struggle for space in Indian universities as job-oriented courses with high placement chances are given more importance in the future.

Loss of Merit in Himachal’s B.ED Course

There are 72 private BEd colleges in Himachal Pradesh with about 7,500 seats, but a majority of the seats are not filled on the merit of entrance test.The government and Himachal Pradesh University have obliged the managements of private BEd colleges by giving them permission to admit even those candidates who failed to secure minimum 30 per cent in the test. Students, who did not even appear for the entrance test, were allowed to register themselves for counselling on the basis of merit of qualifying examination.

Himachal Pradesh University has been compromising on the merit, making a mockery of the entrance test to fill the seats in private colleges instead of reducing the number of approved seats.Academicians are sore over the attitude of the government towards quality education. “Why should the government be reluctant to reduce the number of seats and strictly adhere to merit in case meritorious candidates are not available?” asked a retired professor.

The imbalance

According to the CAG Report of February 2019, Rs 94,036 crore of the secondary and higher education cess and Rs 7,298 crore of the research and development cess remained unutilised.

In 2017-18, the total expenditure on JNU was Rs 556 crore, seeing over 8,000 students through one academic year, over a 1,000 research articles published in reputed journals, 1,086 special lectures being open to the public, and 4,594 MPhil and PhD dissertations being submitted. Contrast this with the Rs 1,313 crore spent on mere publicity of the central government and its schemes.

The national common minimum programme of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-1 government promised 6% of GDP spending on education. This was 15 years ago, in 2004. At present, government expenditure on education is only 3% of gross domestic product (GDP). This includes Central and state governments.

Public universities, by their current composition and policies around admissions, courses and fee structure actually fulfill the mandate of India’s Constitutional Vision that promises equality and dignity for all. Crucially, they

The good fight that the students of JNU and other universities are fighting is for education for all. A common school and education system not because they think they are entitled, but because they know, hailing from the diverse backgrounds that they do, that this crucial stepping stone towards higher education and research enables equality, diversity and pluralism to thrive.

Instead of questioning their struggle and their determination to struggle for the enforcement of the Constitutional Vision, we should question why this agitation has taken shape in the first place. Why is there an increasing need for the privatisation of a fundamental right? Why is there a constant push to keep vast sections of Indians away from quality public education? Why is money the measure of merit?

The current protests all over India are against privatization and segregation within public education. It is against a system that is suppressing free thought by using methods like a fee hike that will keep deprive most students of their right. It is against exclusionary practices based on religion, gender, caste, class or financial standing.

India’s caste system, for close to five thousand years, denied research, knowledge and learning to its millions. The crass push towards privatization of primary, secondary and higher education is nothing short of the push of neo-liberal economics to re-inforce and re-invent the caste system of deprival and exclusion in a more crass, 21^stcentury mask.

Ahmedabad students sign huge banner in support of JNU anti-fee campaign

‘Stand by JNU!’ Solidarity Statements from across the world

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Nationalise Education: Students’ Federation, Karnataka

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 04:24:07 +0000

The Federation of Student organisations for Free education” has called for the Nationalisation of Education. The federation has also demanded the nationalization of education and saving JNU. The coalition has called for an important meeting tomorrow to discuss the matter further.

In the midst of an attack on universities and students, yesterday in Bangalore, a group of student and social organizations came together to form “Federation of Student Organizations for Free Education”.

Education is the fundamental right of everyone. The constitution also agrees to the fact that education should be free and compulsory for all. Savitribai Phule, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, and Dr. BR Ambedkar have fought for it. Even now the struggle is continuing. But the successive ruling governments have tried to escape from the conditional responsibility of education. Governments have been directly responsible for mushrooming of private institutions, closing down government schools and colleges and their continuing assault on education with the latest fee hike at JNU.

Progressive people from Karnataka have joined their hand together to expose the government conspiracy to privatize education, to oppose fee hike across the country and to demand free education across India. It brought all the student organizations of Karnataka together and decided to lead this struggle. The new initiative is “Federation of Student Organizations for Free Education”.

The federation has demanded the nationalisation of education and saving JNU. The coalition has called for an important meeting tomorrow to discuss the matter further.KVS, BVS, SFI, CFI, NSUI, SIO along with several Student bodies have participated in the meeting and have agreed on it unanimously.The first preliminary meeting was held on November 23 in Gandhinagar, Bangalore under the leadership of Dr.C.S. Dwarkanath, former chairman of the Backward Classes Commission and BR Bhaskar Prasad, a youth activist.

BR Bhaskar Prasad adde that the the next meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday November 25 at the Freedom Park, Bangalore and invitations have been sent to ABVP, AISA, AIDSO and DSF organizations who are also expected to take part in it Education is free for everyone in the country, from LKG to PhD. Education must be nationalized.

This Federation hopes that everyone in this country should get equal education without caste and gender discrimination. The federation has given a call that this struggle is not only to save JNU but also for the future generations and to the prosperous future of the country.

Student organisation representatives and their leaders leaving aside their party and ideological disagreements had attended the meeting at Gandhinagar office demanding free education for all from primary school and Ph.D degree along with the question of how can we immediately intervene and support JNU’s Student Struggle.

The meeting, which lasted for about two hours, involved a long discussion on many issues. “It was decided to call and invite more people who are concerned about the issue,” CS Dwarkanath said.

Srinivas from Bahujan Vidyarthi Sangathane (BVS) narrated his experience of studies in JNU and how coming from poor family it helped him a lot.

“I completed MA, M.Phil, and Ph.D. from 2002 to 2010 at JNU, Delhi. JNU offers an excellent education at a very low cost. That is why there are poor talented students from all corners of India. I also went to JNU from my village and completed my studies with 300 rupees a year. Otherwise, I would not have been able to get through this. They do not impose their doctrine on anyone, even though there is much communist influence there. There is also ABVP, NSUI. We also started an organization called Bahujan Students Front. In spite of having several organizations, nobody forces their ideology on to others. The freedom that we get in JNU, makes us to realize the true reality of India and inspires us to build strong India. The BJP government is concerned that those who come out will sow the same thoughts in society. For this reason they are trying to finish off JNU. For saving it we are uniting in Karnataka.”

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Delhi University condemns lathi charge on JNU students

Thu, 21 Nov 2019 13:07:48 +0000


Photo by Praveen Khanna / Indian Express

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student protests against the imposed fee hike by the Inter-Hall Administration entered its 24^th day today. Though the agitation has taken a violent turn and many students have been injured in the fight for their rights, they have not lost their will to stand for the right of affordable education for all.

And in this fight, they have garnered support from not only their teachers, but also from students in universities from all over the country. On Wednesday, students from Delhi University (DU) protestedthe lathi charge their JNU counterparts were subject to by the police. The DU students who came out in support of JNU, protested against the New Education Policy calling it an ‘attempt’ to privatize education, reported the New Indian Express.

The Left-backed All India Students’ Association (AISA) that led the protests along with other student’s organisations supported the agitation against the Draft New Education Policy and the “brutal repression of the protest by Delhi Police and the government”.

Dissenting against the new education policy, they raised “anti-police” and “anti-government” slogans in support of their JNU counterparts who became victims of a ruthless baton charge by the Delhi Police on Monday.

Covering the Chhatra Marg and passing through the Campus Law Centre, students gathered in large numbers in dissent of the “draconian New Education Policy which acts as a stepping stone towards privatisation of public education”, burning effigies of the ruling government and the Delhi Police.

The Delhi Police was present in high numbers at the DU campus and students alleged that they were barricading the boundaries of the Arts faculty to stop students from marching into the campus. The police however denied the allegation saying that they were only there to ensure that the march of the DU students goes off peacefully.

Mumbai University students detained

The Mumbai Police on Wednesday, detained students from the Kalina campus of the Mumbai University who were holding a “peaceful” demonstration in support of the JNU students, and also against the “institutional murder” of 19-year-old Fathima Lathif from IIT-Madras.

Organised by the Maharashtra Joint Action Committee for Social justice along with students of the university, the protest saw students with banners showing solidarity for the ongoing resistance in JNU over the fee hike.

The police “forcefully detained” Avinash Kumar and Baban Sopan Thoke, after which Avinash, who belongs to the Disha Students Organisation, was taken to the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) police station, reported Mumbai Live.

Avinash said, “… they targeted me saying that I was from JNU and took me away. We are not criminals. A policeman in a threatening tone, told me that you don’t understand our power.”

Baban, an MA History student, alleged that he was manhandled by the police and that the students were treated like ‘gundas’ before being taken to the police station.

The All India Students’ Federation (AISF) Mumbai Secretary Aamir Kazi had informed that they attained permission to hold the protest. However, their permission was revoked and Sections 144 and 149 were imposed on Tuesday evening.

The students also demanded justice for Fathima Lathif whose suicide over harassment and religious discrimination in IIT-Madras was dubbed institutional murder by her fellow students. Fathima was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her room on November 9. The police found a note in her mobile phone where she had held responsible one faculty member for being the cause of her death.

JNU inspires IIT-Guwahati

Inspired by the fearless protests of the JNU students, students from IIT-Guwahati carried a silent candlelight vigil for one of their professors Dr. Brijesh Kumar Rai, who was ousted from the university after he unleashed the illegal activities of higher-ups in the institution, including those of the Vice-Chancellor.

The students formed an “I support Dr. Brijesh Kumar Rai” social media page to create awareness about the injustice and corruption in the varsity.

The students have also uploaded a YouTube video where Rai talks about the overall corruption riddling the institution and illegitimate practices in staff selection as well.

Protests erupting throughout universities in the country, be itIIT Delhi, IIT Madras or IIT Guwahati, may be for different reasons, but their end goal is to question the slow build-up of power structures in the system. Therefore, even as a proto-fascist regime attempts to shake the very foundations of education, fearless students have taken up the fight against privatisation and to prevent a right-wing and its sycophants from gaining control over what is free and fundamental to all – affordable education for one and all.

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FIR against JNU students protesting against fee hike, allegations of ‘defacing’ Vivekananda statue

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 10:08:03 +0000

The Delhi Police filed an FIR against unidentified persons on Sunday for alleged vandalism at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s administration block during student protests. The university administration has claimed that the students defaced the property when they were protesting against the increase in the proposed fee hike by the Inter Hall Administration. Protesting students have strongly rebutted this.

Students had pasted posters with slogans such as “No to fee hike” and “Reject Hostel Manual” on the walls of the administrative block of the university, a traditional method of protest at JNU. They have staunchly denied allegations of ‘defacing’ a platform on which a yet-to-be-unveiled statue of Swami Vivekananda stands. Some students had also entered the administrative block on Wednesday and allegedly painted messages on the door of Vice Chancellor M Jagadeesh Kumar’s office. Such messages were also painted at the rector’s and registrar’s office.

Students responded thus to the slew of criminal complaints with slogans and key campaign points:

Modi Government wants students Jailed for demanding Affordable, Accessible and Quality Education For All!_
Modi-Mamidala Duo wants students behind bars for asking why are they making JNU the costliest among Central Universities through fee hike?
Let’s Assertwe are 8,500 students, Fighting to Save our Right to Education! Then why this motivated targeting and victimisation of students and present and former JNUSU office bearers? Doesn’t it speak volumes of the real political agenda of the VC and Co.?
The JNU VC MamidalaJagadesh Kumar, an “agent” of the Modi Government, has filed targeted motivated FIR for protesting against aRs 62,000-70,000 fee hike from the present Rs, 30, 000-35,000 fee structure.
The entire 8,500 student strength of JNU have been resisting the illogical fee hike in the name of utility charges (electricity and water bill), service charge (salaries of hostel workers and maintenance of hostel), increase in room rent and other hostel related fees.
40% of student in JNU come from families whose annual income is less than Rs 1,44,000. The farcical concession given by JNU Admin to BPL families means their annual hostel and mess bill after the fee hike and partial rollback means they need to pay RS 47500-49300, which is 176% to 183% of their income.
We would like to ask the Delhi Police, is it a crime to demand answers about this illogical fee hike? Unfortunately the Modi Government wants students opposing the destruction of public funded education to be jailed. It wants to bulldoze public funded Higher education, to pave the way for foreign and corporate-run profit minded universities!
When our Universities have been turned into prisons, the students will turn prisons into our libraries.
Condemning the FIR, we demand “Complete Roll Back and Roll Back For All” of the fees.*
Post Script:
Has any ABVP student been named in the FIR? ABVP has been claiming to be part of JNU students movement. Is there a special treatment for ‘His Master’s Voice’?
We have time and again said the students of JNU haven’t vandalised or defaced the Vivekananda statue. We condemn the vandalisation in the strongest terms.
JNU VC and his cohorts along with a few media channels have been trying to divert the debate towards statue vandalism.Why? It is not difficult see the compulsions of the VC&Co.
JNU VC lost his moral authority when he shifted JNU convocation to AICTE away from JNU campus. The entire world saw how thousands of JNU students fearlessly took on the combined might of the VC, Police and the Govt. JNU VC lost the legitimacy and narrative so badly. So much so that he held even JNU Executive Council meeting 18km away from JNU!

So, in order to save his face, he has been

>> ‘using’ MHRD to push the false narrative of ‘partial roll back of fee hike’

>>‘using Godi media” tirelessly to spread the narrative on statue vandalism

>> and‘using’ the Delhi Police to slap selective FIRs to derail the raging movement.

The Chief Security Officer of the university had filed the complaint and reportedly submitted photo and video evidence to the police after which an FIR was registered. Two additional complaints were filed against the defacement of the Vivekananda statue by Professor Buddha Singh, the chairman of Swami Vivekananda Statue Installation Committee, and the BharatiyaJanataYuvaMorcha. Professor Singh has asked the police to register an FIR under Section 426 (punishment for mischief) and other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and under relevant provisions of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.

In his complaint he also said that there were objectionable and political remarks written on the base of the statue, targeted at a political party and a group of people donning “saffron clothes”.

Student organisations havecriticised the registration of the case citing that the Modi government is trying to make JNU the costliest public university through the fee hike. It has said that 40% of the students in JNU come from families with an annual income of less than Rs. 144,000. The preposterous concession given by the administration to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families means that their annual hostel and mess bill, even after the ‘rollback’ will shoot up to Rs. 47,500 – Rs. 49,300 which is 176% to 183% of their income.

Apart for demanding a complete rollback and the rollback of fees for all, the AISA has questioned the involvement of the students of the AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad (ABVP) who have claimed to be part of the JNU students’ movement, asking of any of them had been named in the FIR. The AISA has clarified that the students of JNU hadn’t defaced the statue of Swami Vivekananda and it was the VC, along with a few media channels who were trying to give a negative spin to the students’ protests.

The student agitation had taken a turn for the worst last week when the Delhi Police used water cannons to disperse protestors. The VC’s decision was also condemned by the Teachers’ Association who have now asked him to step down from his post.

The students have planned a long march to the Parliament to further their protest and get the government to order the IHA for a complete rollback in the fee hike.

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JNU: Students march towards Parliament, teachers ask VC to step down

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 09:37:19 +0000

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) has asked students of other universities to join its march towards the Parliament on Monday, November 18, to protest against the fee hike and other issues affecting higher education. It also appealed to students outside Delhi to organise agitations on November 18 to mark a National Day of Protest, “to safeguard education as a right, and oppose its transformation into a commodity“.

The police have deployed its Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to stop the long march for affordable education and they have locked the students in the campus.

JNU students have taken to twitter to share live updates and unveil the scare tactics of the government.

Unacceptable scare tactics being used by the State machinery to stop a handful of students from walking to parliament and demanding affordable education for all. Students locked inside campus by men in uniform. Is this Democracy? #EmergencyinJNU #FeesMustFall @ndtv @MirrorNow pic.twitter.com/Y2gTTH7dfh

— Senjuti (@BeArgumentative) November 18, 2019

43% of students of JNU have an annual parental income of less than ₹ 1,44,000 and the proposed fee hike will make the annual hostel fee ₹ 66,100 for Single Seater and ₹ 62, 500 for Double Seater#EmergencyinJNU #AffordableEducation @DrRPNishank @mamidala90

— Arish Rehman Khan (@arishrehmankhan) November 18, 2019

Students from BPL category with parental monthly income of Rs 2250 will pay atleast Rs 4108. Where is the consideration for them. And when students protest, this is what we are greeted with.#EmergencyinJnu pic.twitter.com/r5OmN7Ysan

— Mayur Kumar (@Mayur_Kumar1990) November 18, 2019

#jnu Students protest against fees hike, library and Hostel curfew timings and Hostel manual peacefully. Students march to #Parliament so that issues can be taken to the Prime Minister and MPs #EmergencyinJNU #JNUProtests @RahulGandhi @guptar @INCSCDept @Mayawati @jyotiyadaav pic.twitter.com/ahd4zimqVC

— Neeranjan Rao (@emir_neer) November 18, 2019

Meanwhile, the JNU Teacher’s Association (JNUTA) has given a befitting reply to the Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar after he wrote to them seeking their cooperation in maintaining a peaceful academic atmosphere in the JNU campus.

D.K. Lobliyal, President JNUTA and SurajitMazumdar, Secretary JNUTA have written to the Vice Chancellor and clearly stated that they “couldn’t disagree more” with his ‘appeal’ to make extra effort to convince the students that the changes in hostel charges are not only reasonable but vital for the financial viability of our hostels.

The letter by the teacher association read, “We cannot disagree more with the view that the changes in hostel charges are reasonable and necessary. We are all well aware of what our students are going through presently and the idea of urging them to accept such an exorbitant hike is reprehensible to us. Secondly, we hold you, and the Administration led by you, responsible for the disturbed atmosphere of the campus today. It is the Administration’s decision to impose in a highhanded manner the hike in charges and its consistent refusal to have any dialogue with the students that is the root cause of the present crisis.”

The letter also stated that there was no explanation given as to why the current protocol was shelved in favour of a self-financing system. Asking the VC the cause behind the move, they questioned the claim about the dearth of funds. “Is there some sudden cut in funds and if so, should it not be your responsibility as VC to appeal to the UGC and MHRD and to press on them the need for additional funds? If there is such a dearth of funds, how did the expenses on security increase by leaps and bounds in the last few years and why is so much being spent on introducing biometric systems in the University? Why did your Administration compel the University to accept transferring the responsibility of conducting the entrance examinations to the NTA, a move which has more than doubled the expenditure on these examinations? Is the burden of these several crores also going to be transferred to students?”

The teachers also spoke about the laughable ‘concession’ offered by the university for students from underprivileged backgrounds and accused the VC and administration of taking arbitrary decisions without consulting either the academic council or the teachers. They said that the current fee hike was just another abominable decision in a long list – seat cuts in research programmes, arbitrary changes to admission processes, disciplinary proceedings against faculty members and the abolition of GSCASH among others.

Strongly condemning the leadership, the teachers have asked Kumar to step down from the post of the VC. “We see the hike in hostel charges as another big step in the same direction of destroying the character of JNU as a public institution. The teachers of JNU who have seen this process unfolding before their eyes have through a public inquiry and through their referendum already expressed their clear opinionthat it would be in the best interests of the University that you step down from your position as Vice- Chancellor.”

The protests at JNU have been going on for almost three weeks without any conclusion. The situation had turned violent in the past week, with the students, police and media clashing with each other, While the administration claims to have announced a rollback in the fee hike, the JNU students claim that the same is only a sham and are demanding that there be a complete reversal of the same.

JNU clashes reveal the government’s skewed priorities on higher education

Protesting JNU students target media, target female journalists

JNU Protest: May Have to Quit After Fee Hike, Say Students

Students, Cops clash at JNU on convocation

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“Fee hike rollback is fake”: JNU students

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 06:26:15 +0000

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

Students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have alleged that the claim of the Executive Committee of a ‘major roll-back’ in the hostel fee is total hogwash.

Protests in JNU had intensified after students complained against the almost 300 percent fee hike imposed on them without their consent. Most of the students of JNU belong to backward sections of society and will not be able to afford education there if the hike is implemented.

The protests saw Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, the guest of honour at the convocation, trapped inside the venue for close to seven hours. So was M Jagadesh Kumar, the vice-chancellor of JNU.

The university’s hostel committee had approved a new manual during a meeting on October 28, without consulting representatives of the students’ union. The executive council though hadn’t approved the manual.

Here is the official press release stating the ‘revised’ fee, along with the ‘concessions’ for the economically weaker sections.

Yesterday, R Subhrahmanyam, the Education Secretary had tweeted the following:

#JNU Executive Committee announces major roll-back in the hostel fee and other stipulations. Also proposes a scheme for economic assistance to the EWS students. Time to get back to classes. @HRDMinistry

— R. Subrahmanyam (@subrahyd) November 13, 2019

After it became clear that the partial rollback was announced only for the students who are below the poverty line (BPL), the JNU students’ union slammed the centre, calling the announcement “eyewash”.

“We reject this sham propaganda and selective usage of facts which is eyewash. The HRD secretary, while announcing the so-called rollback, has the arrogance to advise us to: ‘go back to classes’. With the fee hike still in place, not only students will be going out of classes but also out of the JNU,” the student union said in a statement.

N Sai Balaji, President of the JNU Students’ Union laughed at the claims of the administration.

I am crying out of laughter seeing this cruel Joke!

Modi-Mamidala duo to save their face from the #JNUFeeHike crise have turned Below Poverty Line into Becho Publicity Line for Media!

A student has to come from a family that earns less than 75rs p/d, 2250rs p/m & 27,000 p/a! pic.twitter.com/RzgCic7aeV

— N Sai Balaji (@nsaibalaji) November 13, 2019

Putting forth a series of questions, he unveiled what the ‘major rollback’ actually meant.

Saying that the JNU administration was trying to save face and create a false narrative in collusion with the Modi government, he tweeted the following, explaining the details of the administration’s statement.

The HRD Secretary tweet on “Major Roll Back’ of fee hike is misleading!

In order to save their face and create a false narrative, JNU admin in collusion with Modi Government is fooling students and people of this country!

Here is a point to point reply!#JNUFeeHikeRemains!

— N Sai Balaji (@nsaibalaji) November 13, 2019

The apt questions by the JNU students show that the revised charges were only ‘cosmetic’ and that there was no actual rollback of the fee hike and only a portion of the room rent has been reduced.

Three teachers – Sachidanand Sinha, Moushumi Basu and Sharad Prahlad, have also accused the university administration of bypassing norms on Wednesday by conducting its executive council meeting at a location far away from the campus, leaving behind a few of its faculty members, who were not told about the venue change in time.

“The pertinent question is why the administration is not listening to and engaging with the students. We were not told of the change in venue, hence we do not know what transpired at the meeting. This is the kind of respect the JNU administration has towards the members of the council,” Sinha said.

“Only if the vice-chancellor had some imagination that he has to take care of every section of the population at the institute, he would know what it means to be a ‘kulpati’. What is his role? He doesn’t talk to students, doesn’t talk to teachers. To me this is great matter of concern.”

The JNU students have promised to keep up their protest, rejecting this propaganda of the administration. Openly defying the education secretary’s order, they say they will remain out of their classes. Proclaiming that they will not budge on their demand of having a fair dialogue with the administration to take their inputs with regards to the revision in fee charges, they also said that the Vice Chancellor cannot run the university via Twitter.

Students, Cops clash at JNU on convocation
JNU Admin brings in CRPF to stop protests against fee hike
JNU Protest: May Have to Quit After Fee Hike, Say Students
Protesting JNU students target media, target female journalists

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