The Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday sent a status report to Union HRD ministry about the situation in the campus and the action taken by the varsity in connection with the event organised agains
The Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday sent a status report to Union HRD ministry about the situation in the campus and the action taken by the varsity in connection with the event organised against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
The HRD ministry had last week sought a report about the February 9 incident that has sparked widespread outrage.
The JNU vice-chancellor, Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar, said that the Union human resources development ministry had asked for a report on the measures the varsity had taken to investigate the incident.
“We got a communication from the ministry seeking information about the investigation being conducted by the university about the incident. A response has been sent today (Monday),” the JNU registrar, Prof. Bhupinder Zutshi, said.
The university note detailed the sequence of events beginning from how four students had taken permission for an event, titled Poetry reading: The Country Without Post Office. (The title alludes to famous Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali’s collection of poems in English.)
“On the day of the event, it came to notice of the administration that the poster of the event was captioned, ‘Against the Brahmanical Collective conscience, against judicial killing of Afzal Guru and JKLF co-founder Maqbool Bhat and in solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination,’” the report said.
“Despite the university deciding to withdraw the permission, the students went ahead with the programme where allegedly certain objectionable slogans were raised. The organisers also invited the media to cover it without permission from the university authorities. The varsity constituted a high-level inquiry committee comprising of three members to probe the incident. On basis of the interim report, eight students identified by the panel have been debarred from academic activities while allowing them to stay in hostel as guests,” the report added.
The JNU told the ministry that the final report of the committee will be submitted by February 25.
Alluding to apprehension among faculty members about police presence on the campus, the report said, “A letter was sent to the police requesting them to take utmost precautions before entering the university campus, if required under law. Police officers gave us assurance that the police will enter the campus only if absolutely necessary as per law and authorities will be informed in advance.”
The administration is facing flak from teachers and students who alleged that the issue was badly handled, especially the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.
