New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) has written to Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar demanding that university's current Vice Chancellor, professor M Jagadesh Kumar, be removed from his post.
A majority of teachers had voted in favour of Kumar’s removal at a referendum held on August 7.
In a subsequent General Body meeting, the faculty decided on September 5, which is Teachers’ Day, as 'the last date of VC’s removal'.
The final results of the JNUTA referendum on the VC showed that 93 percent of the JNU faculty wants the VC to go and 96 percent is against the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) loan.
Undersigned by JNUTA president Sonajharia Minz and secretary Sudhir Kumar Suthar, the JNU teachers wrote to Javadekar, saying that “the experience of the last two and a half years has convinced them that professor Kumar is solely responsible for several acts of commission and omission on the part of the JNU administration which are destroying this premier public university.”
The teachers alleged that they had repeatedly tried to draw Kumar’s attention to “adverse consequences for the institution’ but their pleas were ignored by him.
“He has instead misused the power of authority by intimidating and penalising members of the faculty through whatever means he can muster,” said the letter.
JNUTA had conducted a public inquiry in October 2017, which found Kumar guilty on seven charges based on a mountain of evidence.
These charges include damaging the interests of students aspiring for research, wasting public money and violating CEI Act and Reservation Policy, harassing teachers and denying them their legitimate dues, assaulting democracy and promoting authoritarianism, undermining JNU’s anti-sexual harassment policy and displaying a callous attitude towards Najeeb Ahmed (who went missing from JNU campus on October 2016) and failing to protect students’ interests.
Accusing the VC of bureaucratising JNU’s academic life, the letter further said: “Professor Kumar has broken down all deliberative processes in the university and reduced its authoritative bodies like the Academic Council to a farce. Through his top-down style of functioning he has tried to inflict a mindless regimentation and bureaucratisation of the University’s academic life even as the essential elements of that life—like the library and viva-voce examinations are being throttled on the pretext of lack of funds.”
The letter states that there have been a flurry of mindless new rules and regulations that promote anarchy, including “conducting a witch-hunt against all those who do not pay obeisance to the administration.”
News 18 has sent a message to the VC seeking his response to the allegations.
Comments
0 comment