JNU students block ambulance for ailing professor during protest; JNUSU denies

Some students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday allegedly blocked an ambulance and stopped doctors from meeting an ailing professor on campus, following which authorities threatened to take "severe action" against them. However, the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) denied indulging in any violence during the protest.

In the morning, a meeting of the Inter Hostel Administration was going on at the convention centre of JNU when some students, who are not members of the IHA committee, "forcibly" entered the venue, university's registrar Pramod Kumar said. "The committee members requested the agitating students to go out and let the meeting continue. But they became more aggressive and began sloganeering loudly, approached menacingly towards the dean of students (DoS)," he said.

In this raucous atmosphere, DoS Umesh Kadam fell sick with alarmingly high blood pressure. "But what was most shocking was complete heartlessness and insensitivity displayed by the students; they did not allow the ambulance to move towards the hospital for an emergency rescue of Kadam," the registrar said.

He alleged that the students did not even allow the university doctors to check on Kadam. Condemning the incident, JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar posted on Twitter, "The university administration is contemplating on a severe action against some JNU students whose conduct today has been not only unbecoming but dangerous and shameful. This kind of behavior by a section of JNU students is highly condemnable and outrageous."

The registrar said the situation of the DoS was getting worse; even his wife and two children were seeking relief from the students. After a lot of effort, when the DoS was shifted into the ambulance, the students again surrounded the ambulance and did not let the vehicle move towards the hospital, he alleged.

"Kadam''s wife was pleading with students and asking the university security to shift him to a fully equipped hospital outside the campus, but these unruly students did not move," the JNU registrar claimed. "They surrounded the ambulance and forced it to be taken to the University Health Centre, rather than to the hospital as suggested by the doctor. The DoS is being confined now in a doctor''s office and the students have surrounded the Health Centre," he said.

"The university shall not be allowed to be held hostage to the whims of a small section of these agitating students and brook no indiscipline in the campus," he added. JNUSU vice president Saket Moon alleged that the vice-chancellor and his people were trying to show the protest in a "negative light".

"The vice-chancellor today attempted to destroy the model which enables economically weaker students to come and study here," he said. "The IHA meeting was held to hike fees, oust students from hostels. The meeting was held without inviting JNUSU which should have been invited. We were protesting against not being invited to the meeting but this protest is being shown in a negative light," he claimed.

"We did not indulge in violence but we will continue to oppose attempts by the administration to shut down JNU Or privatize it," Moon added. The students' union has called for a strike on Tuesday against the administration.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)