JU ‘caste invite’ stirs row

Segregation of senior faculty members of Jammu University on ‘caste’ lines has caused major embarrassment to Vice Chancellor of the Jammu University Prof RD Sharma ahead of the 17th convocation ceremony on March 4, 2018.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is scheduled to attend the high-profile event along with State Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Governor NN Vohra.

According to official sources, “Several senior faculty members have received invitation cards highlighting their ‘caste’ in brackets.

After receiving similar cards aggrieved faculty members have decided to boycott the convocation ceremony.

Some of them have strongly resented the move and termed it a deliberate attempt  on the part of members of the organising committee to embarrass them by sending them invitations in this format. “We want to know the reasons behind profiling guest list on caste lines and bluntly pushing invitation cards in this manner”, one of the senior faculty members who revived this invitation card told The Pioneer.

Another senior faculty member said, “It is like slapping first and saying sorry afterwards. We cannot tolerate this behaviour”.

The organising committee of the Jammu University has also sent invitations to long list of special guests and who’s who of academia. But there is no mention of their background on caste lines.

According to highly placed sources in the Jammu University senior faculty members in Economics,Psychology and  Library sciences had received these invitation cards.

Embarrassed Jammu university authorities have now directed the convener/co-convener for finalisation of guest lists to immediately replace the invitation cards.

Registrar, Jammu University Meenakshi Kilam on Wednesday wrote an apology letter to senior faculty members. In her letter she tendered deep and sincere apology for inappropriate labels on the invitation cards of 17th convocation of Jammu University.

The members of the organising committee are still nervous as they fear the issue is going to snowball in to a major controversy as some of the faculty members are in no mood to bail out those behind the ‘outrageous’ move and may take up the matter before the Union Finance Minister to highlight ill-treatment meted out to them.