New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar on Saturday finally decided to meet a select few students — but did not even inform the democratically elected students' union of the varsity and its president Aishe Ghosh.
The V-C met with students from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and told them that "terror created by some of the activist students went to such an extent that many of our students had to leave the hostels".
However, hitting back soon after the meeting, the JNUSU president addressed reporters and told them that none of the office bearers had been told about the meeting and that they were not invited even. Ghosh added that their strike will be on till their demands of the V-C's removal are met.
Kumar has ignored multiple advisories from the MHRD asking him to engage with the protesting students and faculty members. He is yet to meet them even once and has not yet visited Ghosh, who was brutally attacked last Sunday.
The V-C told ABVP students in Saturday's meeting that the administration had enhanced security in the campus to make sure that innocent students are not hurt. "This is a problem that many illegal students are staying in the hostels, who could be outsiders and may be even participating in possible violence because they have nothing to do with the university," he told them.
While Kumar has maintained that he is not looking to politicise the students' agitation, he had shared a video posted by government-owned Prasar Bharti News Service, which wrongly identified an attacker as a Left-affiliated student. The V-C retweeted the PBNS video adding that Left students had started violence in the campus. Even the official statement by the administration pinned the attacks on the students who allegedly vandalised the server room.
In an extended press conference on Saturday, the JNUSU also accused Delhi Police of "furthering the ABVP's narrative" on Sunday's events, as a fact-checking website revealed that the photos released by the probe team, implicating Left students and Ghosh had been picked up from five-day-old tweets of ABVP members. The report showed that even the markings and text on the photos were identical to the tweets.
JNUSU vice-president Saket Moon said ABVP members had also assaulted students on January 4 and during the first half of January 5, adding that several of them were beaten even before the attacks happened in the night. Ghosh, on the other hand, clarified that their strike will be on and they are yet to decide the next course of action.