New Delhi [India], October 19 (ANI): The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Sunday strongly condemned what it described as “violence perpetrated by the Delhi Police” against JNU students and the detention of 28 of them, including three JNU Students Union office bearers, on Saturday.
In a joint statement, JNUTA President Surajit Mazumdar and Secretary Meenakshi Sundriyal said, “Videos and other reports indicate the use of brutal force, leaving several students severely injured. What is of extremely serious concern is not only that women students were among those assaulted, but also that they were detained after 7 PM.”
The statement said that the police appeared to be “motivated by objectives other than the maintenance of law and order” pointing out that a peaceful march questioning police conduct was not tolerated. The march, according to the teachers’ body, was organised to protest alleged incidents of violence, forceful confinement and derogatory remarks against the JNUSU Office bearers and School Councillors during the School GBMs (general body meetings).
“Such a failure of the Delhi Police was also witnessed just a couple of days ago in a Delhi University college when a teacher was assaulted in their presence. In JNU itself, the Delhi Police was neither able to prevent the dance of violence indulged in by masked hoodlums on 5 January 2020, nor has it managed to trace or identify a single one of them in the almost six years that have since passed. It had also proved to be an abysmal failure in finding our student, Najeeb, who has been missing for years,” the statement read.
“That same Delhi Police, however, was willing to use extreme force simply to prevent students who had gathered at the Paschimabad gate on the call of JNUSU, from marching to the Vasant Kunj Police Station to lodge an FIR on the previous day’s violence,” the statement noted.
Calling out “lack of even-handedness in the law enforcement process”, the JNUTA said that the Police refused to release the detained students, including the women students. This was despite the intervention of several teachers, who reached the spot after receiving SOS calls, and helped to diffuse the situation.
“This stubborn refusal of the Police also pointed to the influence of extraneous considerations on what the Police does or does not do,” the statement said.
While noting that some of the detained students have been released, JNUTA demanded the “unconditional release of all of them.”
Expressing concern over the university administration’s role, JNUTA said, “The JNU Administration led by the Vice-Chancellor is, at least tacitly if not actively, encouraging the development of a similar situation as that which culminated in the mob violence of 5 January 2020.” It added, “JNU’s student politics, including JNUSU elections, have had a proud tradition of being marked by a democratic culture free of violence. Students themselves crafted this achievement and maintained it over generations, and it is only the acts of omission and commission of the JNU Administration in matters of student ‘discipline’ that could possibly endanger it.”
JNUTA warned that “the Vice Chancellor, despite being a JNU alumna, is not really proud of such traditions which defined JNU for decades, is now a well-established fact. She would, however, be playing a very dangerous game if she were to see opportunity in the violence, and the rearing of the ugly head of casteist abuse, that has rocked the University over the last two days.”
“Should the Administration fail to act to nip such tendencies in the bud, the consequences for the University could be severe. Instead of serving to divert attention from the collapse of her moral authority of the Vice Chancellor, this would only reinforce that collapse,” the statement said.
JNUTA appealed to JNU teachers “to remain vigilant in these trying times and speak up against this onslaught on democracy that is taking place through the combination of violence and coercion and denial of rights to peaceful protest.” (ANI)
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