JNU VC’s appeal fails, 500 students to march to ministry

New Delhi: At least 500 students of Jawaharlal Nehru University will march from the campus to the office of the Union education ministry on Friday to register their protest against the university administration. This comes even as vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit attempted on Friday to pacify the protesters by urging them to end their hunger strike, which has now entered the 10th day.

Dhananjay, who was elected in March as president of the students' union — a body yet to be notified by the administration — said, "The VC repeats her favourite line about having no money whenever we make demands. We will, therefore, march to the education ministry on Friday." He also denied the possibility of a thaw between the administration and the agitating students after the VC met the protesters on Wednesday morning.

There are five students on an indefinite hunger strike, one of them having joined after the health of two protesters deteriorated on Monday. After over 230 hours without food, at least three of them are developing health complications, a student participating in the hunger strike claimed to TOI, adding that the VC visited the protesters and spoke to them briefly. Pandit, according to him, was accompanied by senior university officials, including the chief medical officer and dean of student affairs.

A university administrative official confirmed to TOI, "The VC met the students and told them that the administration was there for the welfare of students. Our chief medical officer, dean of student welfare and Rector 2 have been visiting and talking to the students on a regular basis."

Describing the agitating students as her "own children", Pandit pleaded with them to end their hunger strike and said she was doing everything she could in her capacity. She claimed to be aware of the struggle that the students had faced in their personal lives to reach JNU and was pained to see them on strike.

The indefinite hunger strike led by JNUSU has been called primarily to demand an increase in the merit-cum-means scholarship to at least Rs 5,000 and to thwart any attempt by JNU to sell the Gomti Guest House, alleging that the university's stance on a funds crunch was "sham and bogus". Another major demand is student representation in the university's internal complaints committee to tackle the cases of sexual harassment on campus.

While Dhananjay said it wasn't possible to sit down with the VC to find a way forward without resorting to protests because of the administration using "tactics to appear good in the public eye", the JNU authorities maintained that the education ministry subsidised the university's expenses and that it itself had no internal receipts of its own, unlike other central universities that were able to raise 20-30% of their expenses from internal sources.

JNU aims to generate its own funds and increase internal revenue to avert raising fees, which are as low as Rs 10 and Rs 20 per student monthly, the administration said. As revealed in an RTI inquiry, the university, which was ranked second nationally in the recently released National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ratings, received a larger share of funding under the current govt: Rs 3,030 crore in 2015-24, almost 1.5 times more than Rs 2,055 crore in 2004-14.

Asked what was wrong in the administration taking a long-term view and striving to generate internal funds, Dhananjay said that JNU, as a premier institution, should be given funds and not be forced to sell its assets. For now, however, the administration seems firm about generating regular income through public-private partnerships, revamp and reuse of the university's assets.