The All-India Students’ Association, a Left student organisation, has alleged that the JNU administration has indulged in a political witch-hunt of students, punishing them for their ideology and activism.
AISA said that the high-level enquiry committee set up by the JNU administration is, shockingly, headed by a professor who was an official representative of the Youth For Equality (YFE), an anti-reservation organisation that overlaps with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
“The Youth For Equality website shows Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar is not just a sympathiser of the organisation but has also given financial contributions for the YFE. How can a faculty member who is organisationally linked to a student group overlapping with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad be entrusted with the enquiry on allegations made by ABVP Already, the high-level enquiry committee headed by Prof. Bhatnagar has proved its bias,” said AISA national president Sucheta De.
AISA questioned the partisan role of the JNU registrar. It said the JNU registrar too said in an interview on February 14 said that the students who have been debarred were seen raising slogans in the video, and that Kanhaiya was also seen in the video raising anti-national slogans.
“It is now well known that the video footage the registrar presumably referred to was found to be doctored. The Delhi police has also said in the high court that they do not have any video which shows Kanhaiya giving anti-national slogans. Can the JNU registrar now explain why he relied on doctored videos to punish eight students and brand them guilty,” asked AISA, asking why the JNU administration violated principles of natural justice and suspended eight students without allowing them to present any explanation and without checking the authenticity of the videos.
Meanwhile, members of the JNU Teachers Association again met the university’s vice-chancellor on Saturday with a list of demands, the primary among them being the removal of the officiating registrar Bhupinder Zutshi.
JNUTA secretary Vikramaditya Chaudhary said the delegation has sought the vice-chancellor’s response on the issue by Monday.
