The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) said the proceedings of the 144th Academic Council (AC) of the university were conducted in the same undemocratic manner as the previous AC meetings, with the chairperson ensuring that most faculty colleagues were not afforded an opportunity to speak freely.
JNUTA president Ayesha Kidwai said, “Not one of the scores of objections given as responses to the minutes of the 143rd AC meeting were brought on record by the JNU administration. The chair also ruled that no discussion of the university’s admission policy could be taken up because the matter is sub judice, which notion does not inexplicably bar the JNU administration from continuing to pursue a policy that has resulted in the worst violations of the reservation policy, the JNU Act and a general failure in fulfilment of intake.”
The JNUTA in a statement said that it strongly condemned the “authoritarian, undemocratic manner” in which the 144th Academic Council meeting was conducted, and warned the chair and his team that repression of democratically divergent opinion does not ever mean elimination of dissent. The meeting however passed the proposals to set up a School of Engineering and Management and to convert the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies into a full-fledged School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies, that will now be presented to the Executive Council for approval.
