JNUTA holds protest meet over VC’s alleged remarks, arrest of 14 students

JNUTA protested against VC Shantishree Dhulipudi's casteist remarks and the arrest of 14 students, demanding her resignation and police accountability.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) held a meeting on Monday to protest the recent casteist remarks allegedly made by vice-chancellor Shantishree Dhulipudi and the arrest of 14 students who were part of a protest march last week.

Brinda Karat during the JNUTA meeting on Monday (Hindustan Times)

The meeting was attended by members of multiple political parties, including Congress Rajya Sabha member Mukul Wasnik and former Rajya Sabha member and current Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat. Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and CPI member Dinesh Varshney were also present.

“We are demanding the resignation of the vice-chancellor, as caste-based practices are already being carried out everywhere. I want to tell the JNU vice-chancellor that it is you who are living in an imaginary world. With your manuwadi spectacles, you cannot see the monster of caste destroying the Constitution of India,” said Karat at the event.

“Dalits and other minorities are being attacked. When RSS and BJP thugs attack us, the police take no action. But as soon as we speak about our rights, we are suspended. The attacks being carried out against education will not be tolerated, and we will protest,” said Bhattacharya.

The meeting was held on the road near the Sabarmati dorms, with posters hung along the stretch bearing slogans such as “Stop demonizing activist students” and “State-sponsored violence against students is fascism”.

Members of the JNUTA said they wanted to highlight that the Ministry of Education has been silent on the remarks made by the vice-chancellor, even as police were deployed to prevent students from reaching the ministry.

“Is it that her infamous casteist remarks — that too while criticising regulations notified with the approval of the Ministry of Education — and her other illegal actions, in fact have the endorsement of the ministry? Was today’s march prevented because the ministry wants to avoid answering the uncomfortable questions it would have had to face from JNU students? The JNUTA demands the immediate release of all the detained students and strict action against the police responsible for transgressing the laws they are themselves bound by while enforcing them. The police, who are still at the campus gates, must also leave immediately,” the association said in a statement.