JNU split wide open, hurtles towards Battle 2.0 after a lull

Deans of five schools have also raised objection with Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar about why the Deans' Committee wasn't informed before initiating disciplinary action against the students. The deans have sought to know from the V-C who all are being charged, what the charges are, and what the recommended punishment in each case is.

The notice was served to 21 students, including Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, JNU students' union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Sharma. By not clearly describing the nature of the offence, the varsity has once again created ambiguity on the issue.

"Any other act which may be considered by the V-C or any other competent authority to be an act of violation of discipline and conduct," the university said in its show cause notice to Kanhaiya Kumar.

Meanwhile, the high-level probe panel of JNU has found two students - Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya - who are in judicial custody in a sedition case, guilty of arousing communal, caste or regional sentiments and creating disharmony among students.

JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Sharma has been found guilty of blocking traffic on the day of the programme.

The show-cause notice issued to Anirban finds him guilty of "furnishing false certificates or false information in any manner to the university, arousing communal, caste or regional feeling or creating disharmony among students, causing or colluding in the unauthorised entry of any person into the campus or in the unauthorised occupation of any portion of the university premises, including hall of residences, by any person." Highly-placed sources said the same charges have been levied on Umar.

Students who have received the notice are confused over the charges as the varsity has not explained the offence in details. Rama Naga, JNUSU general secretary, said the notice doesn't make any sense and they will decide their further course of action after discussions. "There is no clarity in the notice sent to us. We will have a discussion with our members and decide how to go about it."

The students have been asked to respond to the notice by March 16. Meanwhile, the deans of five schools of JNU have contradicted the university's claim that it had apprised them of the probe report on the Afzal Guru controversy. Deans said they had also not been given any details of the charges made against students or the degree of punishment.

However, the university administration on Monday claimed that it had conveyed the summary of the probe panel report to the deans. "The message being conveyed is that the deans were apprised of the summary of the report. Unfortunately, that does not make it clear that we were not provided any details on what charges were being made against individual students and what is the punishment recommended in each case, let alone details of the evidence on which the recommendations were based," the deans said in a joint letter.

The letter has been written by the Dean, Arts and Aesthetics, Dean, School of international Studies, Dean, School of Physical Sciences, Dean, School of Social Sciences and Dean School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies.

The deans have also raised objection to the report not being given to the students who have been issued notices. "We were also told that each student who was issued a show-cause notice by the proctor would be given a copy of the report, which we understand has not been done. On the other hand, media is reporting conflicting stories in which periodic references to the Deans' Committee makes it appear that we are in the know of the charges and punishments (and, therefore, implicitly approve them)," they wrote.

(In association with Mail Today Bureau)