After students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, faculty members of the university have come under the scanner of the Delhi Police.
The police are understood to have sent a “list” of 21 “left-leaning” teachers to the JNU administration, asking it to keep an eye on their activities.
While university sources confirmed receiving the “list” two days ago, the Delhi Police denied sending any such letter.
“We have not sent any list or document to JNU recently,” a police officer said.
When the university was caught in a controversy over an event to mark the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the Delhi Police and other security agencies had sought a list of Kashmiri students in JNU.
Then, too, the police had denied seeking such information, but the students had complained of harassment.
According to the sources, some of the teachers in the list are members of the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) who had supported the students’ movement demanding the release of Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who had been sent to jail on charges of sedition. These teachers had also participated in the nationalism classes held on the campus.
The faculty members whose names do not figure in the list are now being asked about the 21 teachers and their political leanings. JNUTA members have reacted strongly to the police action, calling it an attack on “ideological freedom”.
“The Leftist ideology of teachers in JNU is nothing that has been hidden from the public domain. The teachers have been quite vocal about their ideas and everyone knows what they stand for. I do not understand the point of this surveillance on teachers. You cannot expect the State to stoop so low. I just hope that the teachers whose names figure in the list are not hounded,” JNUTA president Ajay Patnaik told The Hindu .
“It is not just about one or two incidents; it is the institution that is being targeted. First the JNU students’ union gets targeted and now the teachers’ union. It is basically because of the ideological differences they (State) have with us,” another JNUTA member said.
