Campus Atmosphere Not Conducive For Academic Activities: JNU Teachers' Association Tells HRD Ministry

We do not feel secure, the JNU Teachers’ Association on Monday told the HRD ministry. They further added that the atmosphere of the campus is not conducive for academic activities. “Students who left campus after violence scared to return, how can we resume teaching,” JNUTA said. Earlier, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) submitted a memorandum to the HRD Ministry on Thursday, demanding the removal of the vice-chancellor. The students’ union and the teachers’ association of the university took out a joint march to the ministry to put forth their demands. A delegation of students and teachers was taken to meet ministry officials.

The JNUTA submitted a memorandum, which accused “the JNU administration headed by the Vice-Chancellor” of being responsible for the “orgy of violence in JNU” on Sunday. “It is evident that without the connivance of the administration and the JNU security, the entry into the campus of several of the goons, who were not from the campus, and their subsequent exit without being caught would not have been possible,” the JNUTA said.

The absence of any action for several hours by the security guards or police to stop the violence, despite being informed of it, also revealed the alleged complicity of the administration in the violence, it added.

Even while describing the violence as “unfortunate”, “a rather mild term”, the JNU VC did not “waste” a single syllable on the faculty, who were seriously injured by the masked assailants, the memorandum read.

The VC was neither anguished by the kind of harassment women students faced nor disturbed by the plight of visually-challenged students, it added.

“No medical, psychiatric, legal or academic assistance has been offered to the injured and traumatised students,” the JNUTA said in the memorandum.

It added that “there is compelling evidence” that the mob violence of January 5was sanctioned, if not engineered, by the Vice Chancellor”.

“His continuation can only make what is already a terrible situation worse as there is no way that the climate of insecurity and fear can be removed in such circumstances. He must immediately be removed from his office,” it said.