The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teacher’s Association (JNUTA) on Thursday announced that it would organise a ‘Khaali [empty]classroom’ lecture series, which will be taught by the centres, schools and special centres whose research programmes have seen zero admissions this academic session.
In its General Body Meeting (GBM), the JNUTA also announced that it would take up a sustained campaign in defence of the teachers’ rights as employees, the JNU Act, and restoration of admissions to the university’s research programmes, among other issues. “The GBM resolves to frame and publicise a detailed charge sheet that demonstrates the myriad failures of the JNU V-C and his team in managing the affairs of the university.
‘Autocratic functioning’
The JNUTA also expressed outrage against the “vitiation of administrative management by the Vice-Chancellor, M. Jagadesh Kumar, and his team of three Rectors and the Registrar”.
The teachers said that the time-tested traditions of democracy, consultation and respect for rules in decision-making had been summarily set aside, resulting in a highly-centralised, autocratic and uncivil mode of functioning that has led to repeated and relentless violations of the JNU Act, Statutes and Ordinances.
The meeting was attended by 120 teachers who resolved to continue with their critique of every violation of the JNU Act. The JNUTA also said that it stood firm in its opposition to the onslaught on the rights of the faculty members as individual teachers had been subjected to sustained harassment with regard to discharge of duties as well as their status as employees. “Threats of financial recovery and demotion are being selectively used to try to coerce and intimidate select teachers,” the JNUTA said.
The teachers have now called for a march in defence of the rights of the teachers on August 8.