New Delhi: Two Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) provosts have resigned on Wednesday after the meeting with hostel presidents over the new hostel manual.
According to hostel presidents at JNU, the provosts refused to reject the new hostel manual and instead resigned.
A meeting between the authorities and hostel presidents took place today, after which the provosts resigned. The students took to protesting against the new manual.
"The meeting was with provosts of hostels, where they refused to reject the new hostel manual and instead resigned," said Pratik, who is the president of Lohit hostel.
The scuffle between JNU adminitration and JNU Students Union have been going on since last week. The students are protesting agains the new hostel manual, which they say is "anti-students". Meanwhile, CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) was deployed at JNU after 2,500 students tried to march from campus to Vasant Kunj Police Station. "They had barricaded the gates and did not allow students to go out. However, students still marched and reached the police station to file a missing complaint against the Vice-Chancellor. I feel it was a joke taken too far," said a student who was part of the
protest. The students have been protesting against the new manual, which has been allegedly approved without the any hostel president or student union's consent. However, Jagadesh Kumar has called it a "rumour".
The Vice-Chancellor's office refused to comment on the ongoing tussle. On the other hand, the students will be discussing the new course of action.
"There is going to be a meeting Tuesday night and we will decide what can be done," said Pratik. However, dean of students have issued a statement and condemned the students alleging that they forced the provosts to resign. The admin also said that the students were shouting slogans and blackmailing the provosts to sign of pre-drafted papers of resignation/rejection. "This is to inform all concerned that the JNU students on strike have forcibly made three provosts resign from their office on a pre-drafted document and made two provosts reject the proposed hostel manual issued by the IHA," said a statement by the dean.