The Left parties on Monday demanded the immediate sacking of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar, calling him “complicit” in the violence late on Sunday by allowing masked goons to have a free run in the campus and stalling the entry of Delhi police.
Left MPs plan to write to President Ramnath Kovind with a plea for him to use his role as Chancellor of JNU to dismiss Mr. Kumar. The first off the block was CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Elamaram Kareem who sent a letter to Mr. Kovind demanding Mr. Kumar’s dismissal.
Whatever happened in JNU on Sunday night is completely unacceptable and condemnable, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said. “The attack is not only an assault on higher education but an assault on reason, rationality and democracy, ” he said, adding that it is clear that the attack was pre-planned.
Quoting earlier instances of violence in Aligarh Muslim University and Hyderabad University, Mr Yechury said this is a systematic assault on higher education institutes.
It would be wrong to portray the Sunday night attack only as rivalry between two students groups, he said.
“For five hours nearly, the V-C did not respond and didn’t ask Delhi Police, who were standing just outside the university gates, to come and restore normalcy. This makes him also complicit in the entire attack. He must be sacked immediately,” Mr Yechury said.
He added that VC has failed to accept the formula decided upon by all sides on the contentious issue of fee hike in the university despite pressure from the Ministry of Human Resources and Development.
His colleague CPI General Secretary D Raja said the government often mocks JNU students as “ tukde tukde ” gang but the real members of such a gang were the government themselves. “It is actually ‘ Tukde Tukde’ government; it they who are dividing people and country,” Mr. Raja added.
The veteran CPI leader termed Sunday night’s incident as a “cowardly fascist attack”.
“A university is the place for ideas, questioning, criticism and so on which the government doesn't want. This is clearly fascism to strangle independent voices,” he added.
He said Home Minister Amit Shah needs to explain to the nation about the events in JNU.
