Pranab urged to intervene in JNU standoff

As the indefinite hunger strike against the high-level inquiry committee report at Jawaharlal Nehru University entered Day 15, various organisations wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking revocation of punishments given to the students in connection with the February 9 event on the campus.

This, even as three more students — ABVP rebel Pradeep Narwal, JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora and former JNUSU president Ashutosh — joined the indefinite fast on Thursday. Mr. Ashutosh has been debarred from the hostel for one year.

The letter, written by members of 40 women’s rights and human welfare organisations, conveys their deep distress over the openly vindictive, unlawful and unjust attempts by the JNU administration to suppress dissenting perspectives of the students.

The letter added that the punishments given to the students suffered from three kinds of defects. First, the inquiry committee as well as the Vice-Chancellor did not follow elementary processes of natural justice before imposing these serious penalties on students, a move that can damage their careers permanently.

“They did not share with the students the material on the basis of which adverse inferences were drawn against them, nor did they hear many of the students or gave them a fair opportunity to contest the so-called evidence,” the letter read. The second flaw, according to the letter, is that a major part of the evidence is video-recordings that an inquiry by the Delhi government established were mischievously doctored to create adverse public sentiments against the students. The third, it said, is that the punishments are entirely disproportionate to the alleged offences.

The activists urged the President in his capacity as Visitor to the University to intercede with utmost urgency to annul the high-level inquiry committee report, and the unjust punishments awarded by the JNU administration.

The organisations which have written to the President include the All India Democratic Women’s Association, All India Progressive Women’s Association, ANHAD, Jana Natya Manch, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad Delhi Forum, National Alliance of People’s Movement, National Federation of Indian Women, Progressive Writers’ Association, Saheli and Students’ Federation of India.