The Jawaharlal Nehru University has sent notice asking 50 teachers to clarify their position on whether or not they participated on the 1 day strike called by the JNU Teacher’s Association (JNUTA).
The letter sent from the Registrar’s office read “As per reports submitted by the JNU security, you have been seen participating in the strike on July 31 called by the JNUTA. You are requested to clarify your position by 5 pm tomorrow on whether you have been one of the participants in the strike, failing which it will be assumed that you went on strike on July 31,”
The strike was called on the grounds VC’s “mindless regimentation” of the university which as per JNUTA was “vitiating” the atmosphere. In response to the same, earlier on August 1, the university management had sent letters to 50 teachers and the reason given was that the 100 metre radius around the academic buildings and administrative block, considered as the part of the ‘no protest zone’ was violated.
Couple of other decisions taken in the meeting included, approval of mandatory attendance for teachers, renaming of the School of Management and Entrepreneurship after Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister and applying for Higher Education Finding Agency (HEFA) Loan.
In response to the notice the JNUTA wrote, “The right to express discontent through protest is a constitutional right which a University cannot restrict through the exercise of arbitrary administrative power. The teachers are deeply disturbed by the manner in which a democratic act of protest is being treated as an act of indiscipline and illegality.”