The JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) on Saturday said that it is planning to approach the Prime Minister’s Office, Union home minister and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), raising their concerns about the way the government has been dealing with the ongoing controversy in the university.
Alleging the university did not handle the controversy after February 9 event on campus, the JNUSU is also organising a day-long sit-in dharna in front of the administrative block demanding the removal of the registrar Bupinder Zutshi. On March 2, JNU students will also march to Parliament to highlight their concerns about the “stifling of dissent in JNU, Hyderabad Central University and elsewhere through sedition charges”.
“We want to take up all these issue with the PMO, HRD ministry and the home minister. We will also be approaching the NHRC and the Minority Commission to register our concerns at the functioning of the Delhi police and the continuing threats of physical violence against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar and Anirban”.
The JNUSU alleged that HRD minister Smriti Irani’s speech in Parliament, where she pronounced eight students as guilty, is also based on a half-cooked report. “The minister has quoted an internal and ‘interim’ report of a ‘high level enquiry committee’ in JNU to name eight students as prima-facie guilty. JNU students and teachers have repeatedly pointed out that this interim report of the committee, prepared within 24 hours of its formation, violated all norms of natural justice and due diligence,” said JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora. “We would like to ask the MHA and the MHRD, if they knew that JNU had instituted an internal enquiry, why did they send in the Delhi police to arrest students Why did they mess with JNU’s institutional autonomy ,” she asked.
The JNUSU has decided to approach each executive council member before it emergency meeting on Monday demanding that the suspension of the eight students be unconditionally revoked. “The administration has called for an emergency EC on February 29. The JNUSU will present a memorandum to each EC member demanding that the suspension of the eight students be unconditionally revoked. We are also demanding that vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar should take action against the registrar for misguiding him in the handling of the issue,” added Ms Shehla.
