JNU VC: 'Academic activities have suffered greatly, students should end strike'

The Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar on Sunday, November 17, said the academic activities have greatly suffered in the past two weeks due to the protests and urged the students to end their strike. The Vice-Chancellor also appealed to the students to "discontinue the strike and come back to academic work". Kumar also stated, if students continue their strike despite these facts, it will affect the future of thousands of students.

Speaking to the media the VC said, "During the last two weeks, the academic activities in the university have suffered greatly because some students are on strike. I have been receiving several e-mails from students and their parents expressing their concern over the loss of academic activities."

"Inter Hostel Administration (IHA) committee, Dean of Students and senior wardens are in a process with hostel presidents to listen to their concerns about the hostels. Recently, in the Executive Council, new hostel manual was also discussed and many of the students' concerns were taken into consideration. In fact, the charges students have to pay are only 50 per cent for the below poverty line (BLP) category students. There are many other concessions given in the new hostel manual," Kumar added.

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Circular issued

Earlier today, the administration issued a circular urging them to join the academic work. The administration has urged the students protesting for over the past week to return to their classes and resume their academic work. "Administration appeals to the JNU students to return to the classes and labs and resume their academic and research work so that the losses incurred already on these counts may be compensated," the varsity administration said in a circular. The protests began over the proposed hike in hostel fees along with curfew timings and dress code regulation. The latter two have since been withdrawn while fee hikes have been partially slashed.

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JNU Protest

The students of the varsity have been protesting for over the past two weeks against the recently introduced hostel manual, which imposes a hiked hostel fee and other restrictions. The protests have turned from opposition to hostel rule changes to an all-out political and ideological slugfest. Demonstrations have taken a violent and ugly turn many times with administration meetings being disturbed and staff members harassed. The assistant dean of students was allegedly detained for nearly thirty hours, a soon-to-be-unveiled statue of Swami Vivekananda was desecrated with objectionable messages and varsity corridors along with the vice-chancellor's office were marked with derogatory remarks by suspected miscreants. JNU has already filed complaints with the Delhi police and investigations into the matter are underway.

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(with ANI inputs)