The Jawaharlal Nehru Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) in its General Body Meeting (GBM) expressed “deep concern and dismay” at the “continued refusal” of the JNU administration to engage in dialogue with the teachers and the students of the university on matters of “grave concern”.
The JNUTA said that in addition to the continuing subversion of the institutional processes and norms through usurping of powers of decision making from the academic schools and centres and other statutory bodies in the university, the administration was in contravention of the JNU Act and therefore, not only were its actions unacceptable but also illegal.
Repeated appeals
The JNUTA in a statement said that the administration was running a concerted campaign to malign the JNUTA with spurious allegations despite JNUTA’s repeated appeals for dialogue and requests for meetings with the Vice-Chancellor and other administrative functionaries of the university which have received no response.
The GBM demanded that all circulars related to the decision to make attendance mandatory should be immediately withdrawn and the democratic process of academic decision-making in the university should be restored. “All academic decisions concerning the university should be taken in statutory bodies like Centre faculty committees, Board of Studies of Schools and the Academic Council,” JNUTA said.
The JNUTA GBM demanded that the Academic Council should be convened on February 23 as scheduled originally and conducted in a democratic manner. It called upon all teachers to join for a sit-in on February 19 to register their protest against the prevailing situation in the university.
