The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Tuesday suspended eight students and withdrew their hostel facilities for allegedly disrupting an Academic Council meeting.
“Broke open the latch”
A group of students were protesting outside the room where Monday’s council meeting, chaired by Vice-Chancellor M. Jagdesh Kumar, was being held.
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They allegedly “broke open the latch of the meeting room door”, came inside and “shouted” at the V-C, the university said in a statement.
The administration has also identified two former students who were allegedly involved in the incident.
“Eight students who were identified for their involvement in disruption of the meeting have been suspended and their hostel facilities withdrawn with immediate effect. A proctorial inquiry has also been instituted in the incident,” a JNU official said.
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Notices have been sent to the accused students by the Proctor, the official said, adding that action was taken as per preliminary findings and will remain in effect till the inquiry is completed.
The students, who belong to the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), the Democratic Students’ Union (DSU), Student Front for Swaraj (SFS) and United OBC Forum, were demanding that the Academic Council reconsider its decision to “adopt” a UGC gazette notification dated May 2016. As per the notification, interviews became the sole criterion for admission to MPhil and PhD programmes.
JNUSU condemns move
Condemning the move, the JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) said it will “resist” the suspension orders at all costs.
“The JNUSU condemns the suspension orders against the students. If any one needs to be removed from JNU for disrupting processes of university functioning, it is the V-C himself. He has failed to run JNU and is only interested in destroying everything that the university community has achieved through years of struggle. He has become an integral part of the RSS project to dismantle JNU,” the JNUSU said in an official statement.