New JNU: Teachers' Leaves Cancelled, Exams on WhatsApp and Police Post in Campus

At a time when most of the campuses have given up, the students in JNU decided to lead fight against commercialization of education in India. However, in proving its superiority the JNU administration has gone to the extent that its decisions are hitting at the very foundations of the university.

As the agitating students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) continue to boycott the ensuing semester examinations, the university administration has taken some bizarre decisions which are unheard off in the academic community of India. The university now seems to be working with a single agenda of completing the examination in a complete bureaucratic manner. This is indicated by three major decisions; the university has taken to complete the end-semester examinations by December 21.

As all the measures and threatening circulars failed to goad the students towards examinations halls, the university has asked the faculty members to send the question papers to MA and MPhil students through email. The students can write the answers from their homes or hostels or any other place of their choice and submit the pictures of the completed answer sheets through email and WhatsApp to their respective evaluators. Surprisingly the university has neither prescribed the time limit to complete the answer sheets nor any technique was adopted to maintain sanctity of the examination process. This facility is being extended to the willing students while those still boycott the exams will not be promoted in the next semester.

In addition to that, the university has cancelled leaves of all the faculty members associated with the examination process They have also been asked not to apply for new leaves till the process of examination is completed. Earlier, the university administration had managed an order from Delhi High Court for permanent deployment of the local police to ensure that no protest is held within 100 meters' distance of the Administrative Block which houses the offices of the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar.

In its defense, the administration has one-line answer - the decision was taken as the agitating students did not allow the willing students to appear in the examinations. The students of the university are protesting since October 28 demanding complete rollback of the hostel fee hike on the name of 'utility and services charges'. Amid the protests, the university announced to conduct the examination scheduled from 12-21 December. It is also pertinent to mention that the fee hike along with dress code and hostel rules were imposed on students without any consultation with the JNUSU. The rules of dress code and hostel timings were revoked only after protests intensified in the campus.

Meanwhile, the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) on Wednesday wrote an open letter to the President of India who is also the Visitor of the university alleging 'mis-governance' by the Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar. In the letter the teachers have alleged that Mr. Kumar is rejecting every effort made to find a solution to the ongoing crisis at the university. "He has even arrogantly and contemptuously spurned the opportunity offered by a second initiative of the MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) to facilitate a resolution," reads the letter written by JNUTA. "The clear evidence of this lies in the complete mismatch between the subsequent actions of the JNU administration and what was put out by the MHRD on 12 December 2019," it added. The teachers have appealed to the President and MHRD to intervene into the matter "to abort the destruction of a premier public institution". Besides, they have urged the Visitor to ensure their autonomy in conducting the semester examinations.

The open letter to the President of India demanding his intervention into the matter indicates that the administration could not use the established democratic processes in the campus to resolve its internal problems. In the letter, the teachers have alleged that the VC was not serious in implementing the guidelines of the MHRD to resolve the ensuing crisis.

The MHRD on December 12 had asked all the stake holders to be flexible on the issue of fee hike. Earlier, a High Power Committee (HPC) of MHRD and a High Level Committee (HLC) of JNU had also recommended to slash the fee hike. Besides, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had assured to release a grant of Rs 6.41 crore to JNU to help it in meeting the reported financial deficit of Rs 45 crore. In its recommendations, the HLC of JNU had suggested for 50 percent downward revision in fee hikes. However, the VC could not bring the students on board, alleged the teachers.

Though students' agitation is not new in the campus, the reluctance of the administration to prove its superiority rather than winning the confidence of students seems to be new phenomena. Not only the students, the Vice Chancellor has also failed in getting confidence of teachers. The administration may call it new JNU but nobody seems to be happy.

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