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JNU V-C calls for peace, says protecting academic interests ‘top priority’
The JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar’s statement came after a masked mob, armed with sticks and rods, barged into the JNU campus on Sunday evening and attacked students and teachers leaving 23 injured.
A day after the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), its vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar appealed to students to maintain peace and assured them of protecting their “academic interests”.
“The University stands by all the students to facilitate their pursuit of academic activities. We will ensure that their winter semester registration will take place without any hindrance,” Jagadesh Kumar said in a statement.
“They need not fear about their process. The top priority of the University is to protect the academic interests of our students,” he said.
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He also accused the protesting students of damaging the university’s communication servers to disrupt the registration process for the winter semester.
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“They prevented thousands of students from doing their winter registration. Their intent is clearly aimed at disrupting the functioning of the University. This is simply hooliganism and against the ethos of JNU. No such person will be spared and appropriate action will be taken,” he said.
The JNU vice-chancellor’s statement came after a masked mob, armed with sticks and rods, barged into the JNU campus on Sunday evening and attacked students and teachers leaving 23 injured.
Videos and television visuals showed the mob in jeans and shirts, with strips of cloth covering their faces, vandalise hostels, hurl stones and hit students with sticks on the campus.
The administration has condemned the violence but said it was the students agitating against hostel fee hike who engaged in violence.
The Left-backed JNU students’ union (JNUSU) and many students alleged that members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, attacked them.
The ABVP has refuted the charges, saying members of the Left parties led the violence.
JNUSU on Monday called for the removal of Jagadesh Kumar accusing him of “perpetuating” violence after attack by a masked mob on the campus on Sunday evening.
It said, “goons from outside, especially Delhi University” were “imported” to break the momentum of the hostel fee hike protest, which has been going on for over two months.
“Mr. Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, it is time to go! The JNU community has a single point demand. That either this VC resign or the MHRD as the competent authority remove him! Those who are trying to malign and destroy this university will not succeed JNU will live on!” JNUSU said in a statement.
“M Jagadesh Kumar is behaving like a mobster who perpetuates violence in the university he is supposed to administer,” it said.
