Following the gherao of the Administration Block, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration called office-bearers of the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) for a discussion on Friday.
The administration issued a statement saying that the Vice-Chancellor (V-C) and other top officials not only listened to views of the JNUSU but also responded to their queries. It alleged that JNUSU president Geeta Kumari repeated the issue of compulsory attendance policy even after she was given a clarification.
“The students constantly interrupted and raised extraneous demands. It appears as if they were interested in causing hullabaloo rather than holding responsible and sensible dialogue,” said Registrar Pramod Kumar.
The Registrar said when questioned about the gherao, the student representatives failed to explain the ‘repugnant act’ of obstructing passage of an ambulance called that night to take an official to the hospital.
He added that the students were warned not to bring the university to a standstill by breaking rules but to resolve issues peacefully through dialogue.
‘Threats, intimidation’
However, the students blamed the administration for not having a dialogue, and resorting to threats and intimidation instead.
In the meeting, the JNUSU said, Rector-I asserted that opinions of the Academic Council [AC] members do not count in the final AC decisions as the V-C as the chair of the AC has the final right to decide.
‘Pathetic justification’
Ms. Kumari said, “This is a clear admission and pathetic justification of how the V-C has been imposing his own agenda in the name of AC decisions, trampling upon the majority views of the house and thus undermining the very democratic essence of university’s highest decision-making body — the AC.”
JNUSU has demanded immediate rollback of the compulsory attendance policy and withdrawal of all circulars that have been issued since December 22, 2017, threatening to disallow students from writing exams and to withdraw fellowships.
The union also demanded that fellowship claims of research scholars be processed without further harassment on the pretext of the ‘compulsory attendance policy’.
The JNUSU added that it was evident that the meeting publicised through social media by the administration was called only as a perception management exercise for the outer world to cover-up V-C’s ‘authoritarian ways’. They alleged that internally the meeting was yet another attempt to browbeat and intimidate the students and JNUSU office-bearers.
