Following the protest and disruption led by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) that erupted after the administration replaced some chairpersons and a Dean by the acting Chairpersons and acting Dean, the JNU administration slammed the agitators saying that they consist of small section of students tacitly supported by some faculty members in JNU. It targeted both JNUSU and JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) for it.
The administration alleged that the agitators have been causing “enormous damage” to academic and research activities and “obstructing” even the holding of Viva-Voce of the candidates who have cleared the JNU Entrance Examination.
“Some students of School of Arts and Aesthetics (SAA) have put a lock to the entrance of the SAA building and prevented all the teachers and the staff and the fellow students from entering the building since the morning of March 15,” said the JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar in a Press release .
“The Dean of the School, Prof Mazhar Asif was also prevented from going into his office. Thus he could not conduct the Viva-Voce of the candidates who have come from different parts of India seeking admission to various academic programmes,” he added.
JNU administration has also alleged that some students have been “preventing the new Chairperson of the Centre for Historical Studies of the School of Social Sciences from entering his office”. It said that in the process, the normal functioning of the centre has come to a “standstill”.
“It seems that the JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) and JNU Students Union (JNUSU) have made common cause to make baseless allegations against the administration and launch one after the other agitations,” said JNU administration.
The JNU administration said that the activities of JNUSU and JNUTA have created a negative ambiance in the campus affecting the career of a vast number of students, including students from marginalized sections of the society and of poor financial back-ground.
Further reiterating its point the JNU administration said that all decisions of administration are only after due process in statutory bodies.
“Most of the reforms brought about by the JNU administration, including the attendance rules, are through the official processes of the statutory bodies such as Academic Council and Executive Council,” said Pramod Kumar.
He further said that the Executive Council, being the highest executive body, has taken a serious note of the defiance of some Chairpersons and a Dean who refused to implement the attendance rule, and has decided to replace them by the Acting Chairpersons and an Acting Dean until the matter is investigated by a committee.
“Unfortunately, JNUTA and JNUSU both are opposing the decision taken by the highest statutory body of the university. What can be worse than this for a university! Even more unfortunate is protesters not even sparing residential areas from staging their demonstrations through offensive sloganeering. Family members, including children and old persons, have been distressed by such unlawful activities,” said administration in press release.