Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student and activist Umar Khalid was finally allowed to submit his PhD thesis by the university on Thursday.
‘Befitting reply’
“This should come as a befitting reply to all those who had earlier said that students of JNU do not study. The body of work that Kanhaiya [Kumar], Anirban [Bhattacharya], I and others have produced should be the answer to all the spokespersons of the ruling party, who were of the opinion that we do not study,” said Mr. Khalid.
Feb 2016 incident
JNU had on July 23 refused to accept Mr. Khalid’s PhD thesis citing the punishments awarded to him and the others in connection with the February 9, 2016, incident.
Mr. Khalid was refused permission to submit his PhD thesis in July despite the Delhi High Court setting aside the decision of the High-Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) and instructing the university not to take any “coercive action” against him.
“The administration refused to accept my thesis even on Wednesday evening and said they need to take legal opinion. It was only on Thursday morning that they called me back and I submitted the thesis,” said Mr. Khalid.
‘Sedition row’
The HLEC, that was set up by the university to probe the incident on campus that led to a “sedition row”, had in July recommended that Mr. Khalid be rusticated.
