JNU writes to vice president Venkaiah Naidu over MPs protesting at varsity

The move comes after the JNU teachers’ association invited two Parliamentarians for a protest meeting against the UGC’s new formula for calculating reservation in faculty recruitment on Thursday.

The JNU administration Thursday wrote to vice president Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, seeking their “guidance” on having parliamentarians comply with the Delhi high court order of not participating in any protest near the university’s administration building.

The administrative building of JNU. (HT Photo)

The move comes after the JNU teachers’ association (JNUTA) invited two Parliamentarians — RJD’s Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha and Jitendra Chaudhury, a CPI(M) member from Lok Sabha — for a protest meeting against the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) new formula for calculating reservation in faculty recruitment on Thursday.

“The JNU administration writes to you with considerable distress regarding an incident involving parliamentarians, which has violated the order of the Delhi high court as well as the JNU rules and regulations. JNUTA had invited two parliamentarians for a protest in the campus which is their democratic right. However, what is shocking is that the JNUTA office-bearers mislead the MPs and brought them to protest at administration building which has been prohibited by the High court… We are constraint to bring this fact to your kind notice and seek your guidance on honouring the court order and the university rules by the MPs who visit the campus,” the letter signed by JNU acting registrar Ajay Babu stated.

Chaudhary said the he has not received a copy of the letter as of now. “But it’s astonishing that the administration did not inform us about the rule when we were there for more than one and a half hour but chose to send it to the vice president and the Lok Sabha speaker. It’s highly condemnable,” he said.

The JNUTA event was followed by a protest held by the teachers from the Delhi University (DU) and JNU Thursday against the new formula for calculating reservation in faculty recruitment, saying it will “sharply” reduce the representation of SC/ST and Other Backward Communities (OBC) candidates.