JNU Registrar Bhupinder Zutshi talks to The Hindu about the controversy:
Why was the police allowed inside the campus to take JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar into custody?
When the police informed us abut the FIR lodged against unnamed persons raising anti-India slogans on the campus, on charges of sedition, which is a serious criminal charge, we gave permission to the police to investigate and allowed them to enter.
The University has debarred eight students from academic activities. What was the basis for the action?
An enquiry committee comprising Professor Rakesh Bhatnagar, Professor Himadri Bohidar and Professor Suman K. Dhar identified the students as raising anti-India slogans. The students who have been debarred were seen raising slogans in the video, and Kanhaiya was also seen in the video raising anti-national slogans.
Why did the University withdraw permission for the Afzal Guru event after allowing it initially?
It is incorrect to say that we withdrew permission to students after allowing it in the first place. They had sought permission to hold a poetry event titled “A Country without Post Office”. Later, we heard from our sources that the event was being organised to observe the judicial killing of Afzal Guru. It was not the ABVP student wing that complained, but our own sources who informed us of the change in plan, and when we saw the pamphlets that were going around, we withdrew permission.
