NSUI protests against JNU students suspension

The National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Wednesday staged a protest outside the Human Resource Development Ministry office here against the suspension of at least eight students by the JNU administration a day earlier.

The students wing of Congress party mounted the protest led by its President Amrita Dhawan, accusing the Centre of filling prominent academic posts with proxies, where RSS sympathisers are appointed to spread their propaganda.

"The constant attack on the student community by the government, directly and through their proxies shall not be tolerated. The NSUI will fight against the anti-student forces. The government is scared of the students because they are raising questions that the BJP is unable to answer," a statement quoted Dhawan as saying to media.

"In JNU, they have deliberately suspended students belonging to deprived sections of the society in furtherance of their 'divide and rule' agenda. We demand that the suspensions be revoked immediately," she added.

In the statement, Dhawan also alleged that the protesters were brutally beaten up by the police at the site of the agitation.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Tuesday suspended at least eight students for disrupting the 142nd Academic Council proceedings which was held on Monday.

The suspension has been contested by the faculty members present at the meeting then and the JNU Students Union, who said that the meeting was already over when the group of students came inside the hall and shouted slogans.

The students, as told to IANS by a former General Secretary of JNUSU, belonged to Birsa-Ambedkar-Phule Students Association (BAPSA), Democratic Students Union (DSU) and Students for Swaraj (SFS) -- all student groups active in the campus.

The slogans were shouted against the decision taken during the Academic Council's session held on last Friday, which stipulated a weightier say for viva-voce for the admission of the students, instead of the written exam.

The council adopted the guideline which was laid down by the University Grant Commission (UGC) in May this year in spite of a strong opposition by the students.

The students fear that giving more weightage to interview will entail rigging of admissions, which may then be done on the basis of prejudices.

--IANS

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