If everything goes according to the plan of JNU administration, teachers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will be placed under the Conduct of Central Services Rules, which would restrict them for making public statements against the administration.
One of the members of the academic council of the JNU has been quoted in a Republic TV report saying that the academic council had held a meeting on Friday and the issue to bring these rules was a part of the agenda. The members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) have raised an objection as they allege that it was circulated only three-four days before the meeting.
Addition to this rules, the JNU administration has also passed the proposal of three online courses -MA in Sanskrit, Certificate of Proficiency in Computational Linguistics and Certificate of Proficiency in Pali. The academic council of the JNU also said that efforts will be made to fill all the MPhil and PhD vacancies.
An academic council member reportedly said that there was a discussion regarding the Conduct of Central Services Rules for teachers and it is being brought to suppress dissent. He said there was a discussion on it, but the vice-chancellor did not take their views into consideration. In a statement, the JNUTA has alleged they were not allowed to express their views on “crucial issues of academic relevance”.
“The JNU vice-chancellor once again didn’t allow members in the Academic Council to express their dissent. In the beginning of the meeting when various members tried to raise procedural issues, including several illegalities about the manner in which this meeting was convened, the chair didn’t allow anybody to speak,” they alleged.
Reportedly, The JNUTA said that any rules and regulations pertaining to the university should be circulated 10 days before the meeting, but according to JNUTA, agenda papers did not reach any schools and centres before October 1 and for many, it reached on October 3.
“This purposeful delay has made it impossible for the schools and centres to engage fully with all the issues coming up in the academic council,” the JNUTA said.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) had called for a strike on Friday as they claim that they were not invited to the academic council. However, the JNU administration rejected the charges and termed their claims baseless.
The varsity issued a statement clarifying that the newly elected JNUSU panel is yet to be notified by the relevant body. JNUSU office-bearers are not members of the academic council but only special invitees”. The varsity also said the outgoing JNUSU members were dismissed from academic council meeting due to ‘serious misbehaviour and misdemeanour’ at an earlier academic council meeting.
JNU has seen many incidents of violent clashes and is considered a hotbed of leftist ideologies. The JNUSU and many of the professors had been vehemently opposing vice-chancellor M Jagadeesh Kumar ever since he took charge of the institution.
