As the standoff between Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students and police continues, university administration is in a Catch 22 situation over the five students — including mastermind of the February 9 anti-India event Umar Khalid — who told the media on Sunday that they have been on the campus.
The five students — Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash — had gone missing from the campus since February 12. Sources told The Pioneer that Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar might seek “legal advice” before taking a call on handing over the accused to police. Moreover, the decision would be taken after the HC responds to the bail plea of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on Tuesday.
Following the overnight developments, the V-C had a day-long meeting to discuss the position university should take with respect to the students who have been charged with “sedition and criminal conspiracy” for allegedly shouting “anti-national” slogans in an event held on the campus to commemorate the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
“The teachers have asked the administration to facilitate in withdrawing the sedition and criminal conspiracy charges against the students. It is a matter of the university and should be sorted internally.
The enquiry committee is faulty because of lot of shortcomings. It does not even have a female faculty member which is like a ritual practice of JNU. We are gender sensitive and also member from other communities is a must to have a fair probe,” said Ira Bhaskar, faculty from JNU School of Arts and Aesthetics.
The VC met his immediate team that included Registrar Bhupinder Zutshi in the morning and later in the day he had a long discussion with “300 teachers including JNU Teacher’s Association (JNUTA)”.
“But he did not assure anything. He said he is still thinking on what to do.” said one of the teachers.
An official from the university said, “The administration is stuck on all ends...if the VC allowed police inside, we will face students’ backlash and if he does not then it could be lawfully wrong. It is a difficult situation and the VC might take help from lawyers to seek a legal opinion on how to go about it.”
The delegation of teachers had demanded that the VC should change the composition of the high-level enquiry committee probing the incident.
The JNUSU has given a call for a march in support of justice for Hyderabad University Dalit student Rohit Vemula who committed suicide. Shehla Rashid Shora, the Vice President of the union, asked the students to observe “complete shutdown” on Tuesday to march in large numbers outside the campus and it was supported by the JNUTA that has demanded the sacking of Zutshi over ‘mishandling’ of the situation.
Shehla said the union demanded that “the VC must take a stand for the students.”
“We want the university VC to take a stand like Jadavpur University and AMU that police will not come on the campus. He should also demand from the Delhi Police that all charges against the students be dropped as it vitiates academic atmosphere,” she said, adding a letter has been submitted to the VC in this regard.
The Chief Security Officer of the university was ordered by the VC to not allow police inside the campus, sources said.
The five students were protected by university’s security guards with a human chain. Khalid addressed the students in the night and defended himself and said he was not a terrorist and all allegations against him were “baseless”.
“We were in hiding because after what happened with Kanhaiya, we feared mob- lynching. We decided to return after we believed that some normalcy returned on the campus,” said Ashutosh, former president of JNU Students’ Union and a PhD scholar at School of International studies.
He said the four of them were not in touch with Khalid and had spoken to him last on February 9, the day of the event. Ashutosh said the students were in Delhi itself and that the decision to return on Sunday evening had been taken individually and not collectively.