While thousands of Jawaharlal Nehru University students sat in protest, blocking the road outside Jor Bagh metro station, JNU Students’ Union members were taken by the Delhi Police to meet officials of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on Monday evening.
JNUSU general secretary Satish Yadav said they met G.C. Hosur, Joint Secretary of the Department of Higher Education, and submitted a memorandum to him explaining their position on the hostel fee hike, and the reasons for their protest. They said this was done so that the “high-level” committee appointed by the MHRD could make an informed decision.
“We have been assured that the JNUSU, which the university administration has not been talking to, will be invited for a meeting on Wednesday at which all stakeholders will be present,” Mr. Yadav said, adding that the memorandum requested that established processes of JNU must not be short-circuited in the name of the high-level panel decisions and that the JNUSU, as the elected representative of the students, needs to be an active participant.
The memorandum also said that the MHRD should hold the JNU V-C and his administration accountable for disruption to normal functioning of the university, and the the V-C must be removed for his complete mismanagement of the university.
Commenting on their march being stopped by the Delhi Police, the JNUSU said that the action by the police was “the most brutal muzzling of democratic rights”.
“JNU students have been brutally attacked by the police and the CRPF. The police used brutal force to disrupt our peaceful march and several students were injured. Many students, including JNUSU office bearers, have been detained,” it said.
The JNUSU said that the worst attack came in the evening when protesters sitting on the streets were lathi-charged. “We were given assurances that we would be dropped back to our campus after the meeting with the MHRD officials by the Delhi Police. But what followed shows that we can never trust any assurances given by the police,” the JNUSU said.
The union added that it was happy that the MHRD was recognising it as a representative of the students of JNU and that the university officials should also do the same. The JNU administration has maintained that the JNUSU had not been notified by the administration and it was therefore not a representation of the students and hence would not be included in any discussions.
