Another JNU student hospitalised on 14th day of stir

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) scholar Shweta Raj was taken to the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in a critical condition on fourteenth day of her hunger strike even as the standoff between the administration and students continued on Wednesday.

She was referred to the hospital as she began complaining of “severe pain” in her abdomen along with difficulty in breathing, JNU students said.

The administration, meanwhile, made a fresh appeal to the students to call off their hunger strike, saying it will now abide by the orders of the Delhi High Court as Umar Khalid and Annibarban Bhattacharya filed a petition on Tuesday challenging their rustication by the varsity.

“The High Court has asked the university to deposit all the documents relating to it for judicial scrutiny. Since the matter is sub-judiced, the administration will abide by the court’s ruling,” JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar stated in a statement.

The students, however, remained non-committal on the fresh appeal with some of their Leftist leaders saying that the varsity administration was applying “one after another trick to somehow push its agenda and put the students’ issues on the back burner.”

On Monday, a day before the academic council meeting, the vice chancellor made an appeal to the students to call off their strike and also announced constitution of a committee to discuss students “issues”. 

“Now, when our vice chancellor is so much interested in resolving our issues, why cannot he himself listen to us and take a decision? He ran away from the academic council meeting when teachers and students wanted a discussion on the biased report of a high level committee set up by the university and punishment handed down to students on its recommendations,” a JNU Students’ Union leader told DH.

Vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar recently approved slapping of a hefty fine on 15 students including Shweta, rustication of three students including Khalid and Bhattacharya, withdrawal of hostel facility for Ashutosh and Komal Mohite and banishing of two others from the varsity campus on the basis of the report.

“Students are waiting for the reconvening of the academic council meeting which was abruptly adjourned by him (V-C) yesterday (Tuesday) as the council members demanded for a discussion on a biased high-level committee report and punishment handed down to students on it recommendations,” another student added.

Shweta, who is a convenor of the JNUSU in the school of language, is one of the 21 scholars of the university who were charged with committing gross indiscipline and punished for it on the basis of recommendation of a high level committee which probed the Afzal Guru event.