Registrar giving communal colour to clash on university campus unfortunate: JNUTA

NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) on Tuesday said it is unfortunate that the university's registrar has given a communal colour to the April 10 clash on the campus. They also urged the vice-chancellor to announce a thorough and impartial inquiry into the clash that broke out in the Kaveri Hostel mess, allegedly over-serving non-vegetarian food.

"We would like to express our dismay at a press release dated April 11 from the registrar, giving the whole incident a communal colour, whereas it is clear that the havan, for which there was no permission given by the warden, was not disrupted by anyone," the JNUTA said in a statement. Noting that giving a communal dimension to the incident by the registrar is "most unfortunate", the association said it seems that he has already passed a judgment without any enquiry into the incident, "which makes his assertion irresponsible". "We hope that your good offices would prevail and that you would take an objective and a non-partisan view, otherwise any enquiry would be seen as already prejudiced," it said.

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Demanding a thorough and impartial enquiry into the incident, the JNUTA also demanded that given the many security lapses on the campus, the contract of the current security agency should be terminated forthwith. "If the internal security mechanisms had worked, there would have been no need for police intervention. Unlike many other campuses across the country, where police presence is a norm, the hallmark of JNU has always been the absence of police. Only when things have gone out of hand, like they have in the last few years, had police intervention been required," the teachers' body said. As far as religious festivals are concerned, the university has always taken a steadfast position drawn from Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of "sarva dharma sambhava", it added. "Never have they been disrupted by any section of the student community, whether of this or that group, and that maturity of respecting each other's religious practices and festivals is something exceptional in the university, a practice which should be cherished," the JNUTA said.

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It also said despite the fiercest of debates for which the campus is well-known, those differences never resulted in violence. "This recent incident, however, comes in the backdrop of a spate of violent incidents, the most infamous of which happened on January 5, 2020 when unidentified masked goons attacked teachers and students on campus. The assailants are still at large. "We would like to impress upon you the need to reaffirm the democratic values that this university is known for," the teachers' body said.