The High-level Enquiry Committee formed by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to probe February 9 event against killing of Afzal Guru has pointed out serious lapses on the part of university and its security, saying that authorities are not vigilant enough to anticipate and prevent this event which brings disrepute to the university.
The report claims that the similar event commemorating the death anniversary of the Parliament attack convict, who was hanged in 2013, had taken place last year as well but the security of JNU was “not alert and vigilant” to spot these posters for the event. Based on the evidence with the committee, it has found that the JNU security did not make any efforts to stop the outsiders from shouting provocative slogans and also made no effort to prevent them from leaving the campus.
“It has to be noted that the event had taken place last year as well, the security was not alert and vigilant to spot these posters for this event till the Chief Security Officer (CSO) met the authorities.... Dean of Students’ Office (DSO) was also not vigilant enough to anticipate and prevent this event,” the report said.
The committee has pointed out that the Dean failed to issue withdrawal of the permission in writing “but sending an sms”. “It has come to light that the DOS was not present on campus during the event although he was in touch over the phone with CSO... since the process of taking the permission was not completed, there was confusion at the level of the DSO on whether the permission had been granted or not.”
The report has rejected permission from the University for holding of the event stating that “the process for permission did not complete”.
“The booking form was never submitted to the approving authorities by the students concerned (Syed Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Komal Mohite and. Ashwati Nair)...the undertaking form attached with booking form did not have full names and stamps of the four signing authorities and Komal Mohite misrepresented her hostel address while other students did not write full names,” it reads.
The anti-India sloganeering has been mentioned line by line in the report. The slogans — “Kashmir ki azaadi tak jung rahegi, Bharat ko ragda de ragada, Aeen hindustan ka manzoor nahi, manzoor nahi - were raised in the evert, says the report. The panel also includes the videos authenticated by the Truth labs to prove the point.
The report also names two students from JNU - Mujeeb Gattoo and Mohd Qadeer— as supporters of the outsiders who were present on the campus and indulged in the anti-India sloganeering.