With some faculty members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) planning an academic boycott as a protest against Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar, the administration has issued an advisory to all teachers asking them to resume classes in the interest of the student community. It warned that a failure to do so violated their service contracts.
JNU Teachers Association representatives are expected to meet with Human Resource Development Ministry officials on Monday afternoon for further discussions to end the impasse. The JNUTA plans to submit a “dossier on the VC’s misdeeds,” according to their statement.
On Saturday, the JNUTA general body meeting issued a resolution to carry out a Non-Cooperation Action Plan.
“The resolution implies that we refuse to comply with the two circulars issued on January 10, which asked teachers to be present in their offices for registration, to start classes and other relevant academic activities from January 13 and to upload time-tables for the same,” said a statement from JNUTA president D.K. Lobiyal and secretary Surajit Mazumdar.
“The JNUTA appeals to all colleagues to implement fully these decisions of the General Body to express our outrage at the continuation of Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar as VC even after the mob violence of 5th January 2020, in which teachers were also targeted and several of our colleagues injured. We will not become a party to his attempts to create a fiction of ‘normalcy’ in the University that wishes away the real climate of fear and terror he has created.”
In response, JNU registrar Pramod issued an advisory saying that the non-cooperation call “reflects the intention of JNUTA to disrupt normal functioning of the university” and also violates the service contracts of teachers.
Noting that thousands of students have already registered for the winter semester, which begins on Monday, the advisory said that, “Students of JNU have their fundamental right to attend classes and get advice from their respective supervisors and fulfil academic requirements.”
