JNU Students Union accuses VC of misguiding media

The Jawaharlal University Students Union (JNUSU) on Sunday launched another attack on the university's Vice-Chancellor (VC), accusing him of disingenuity and "feeding" the media with false information.

The students union expressed its unhappiness over likely seat-cuts if the UGC notification under contention is implemented. They were most sore about the possibility of M.Phil and Ph.D. seat-cuts for the OBC candidates, who had received a substantial quota boost as a result of the 93rd constitutional amendment.

The 93rd amendment to the Constitution mandates 54 per cent increase in intake of OBC students, taking 2006 as the base year for calculating expansion of seats for OBC reservation.

"The present number of seats in the JNU has been fixed as part of the implementation of OBC reservation and the associated expansion of seats mandated by the 93rd amendment of the Constitution," the JNUSU said in a statement.

"Even the agenda of 142nd Academic Council (AC) Meeting includes the 'intake or offer' list of admissions for 2017 based on this 93rd Constitution amendment, which the VC is now trying to negate," it said.

It also demanded reconvening of the 142nd Council meeting, since the proceedings of the meeting had taken place without any debate or discussion.

"The AC meeting is always conducted in two-parts -- A and B. Part 'A' comprises students representatives who are allowed to deliberate on the ramifications of the agenda discussed.

"But the VC didn't even list the UGC notification as one of the items in the agenda when the Part A was conducted on December 23, three days prior to Part B of the AC meeting where too it was passed unilaterally," JNUSU President Mohit Pandey told IANS.

M. Jagadesh Kumar, the VC of the university, on the other hand, had refuted the union's claims in an interview to IANS earlier, where he had said that the agenda for the meet was communicated to the members of the AC two weeks prior to the meet for any suggestions, and upon receiving no suggestions, the AC went ahead with the adoption of the notification, among other things.

The UGC notification under question, upon implementation, will impose an upper cap on the number of M.Phil and Ph.D. candidates which a faculty member can guide. The union members, along with hundred of students are arguing that it will leave the admission on the basis of vacancies under the faculty instead of allowing a fixed number of students intake every year.

The JNUSU also expressed its fear of the prospect of delinking of M.Phil-Ph.D. programme if notification is implemented. Under the current system an M.Phil candidate get admittted for Ph.D programme on the basis of CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) marks.

The face-off between the students and administration is on at the Administrative Block of the university, which is being "occupied" by the agitating students since February 9 despite several remonstrations and requests by the top officials of the varsity.

An FIR was filed by the administration against, what it called, a "criminal" act, at the local police station. Police is examining the details of the case after which it will decide the course of its action, a senior police official told IANS.

--IANS

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