New Delhi: A week after students affiliated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) blamed him for a scuffle in which they were allegedly beaten up by security guards, Jawaharlal Nehru university rector Ajay Kumar Dubey has resigned from his post, according to an official circular issued by the university Monday.
The clash between a group of protesting students — who were demanding the disbursal of allegedly pending fellowship grants — and security staff last week had resulted in both parties filing FIRs against each other.
While the university administration claimed that two guards were beaten up “mercilessly” by the students, the ABVP JNU unit, in a press statement issued after the incident, laid the blame on the rector.
The statement read, “It should be known that this attack on the students was done at the behest of Dr Ajay Dubey of JNU, who is also the varsity’s rector. The JNU rector has been already exposed for running two ‘illegal’ NGOs from his JNU address.”
The two NGOs in question are the Organisation for Diaspora Initiatives (ODI) and the African Studies Association of India (ASAI), both allegedly registered under the official address of JNU and run in violation of various guidelines. Dubey has denied the accusations, which were reportedly made by a group of teachers.
ThePrint reached out to both Dubey and the university administration through texts and telephone calls, but had not yet received a response when this report was published. This report will be updated if and when they respond.
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ABVP and university blame each other
According to the ABVP, about 2,000 students at the university haven’t received their fellowship grants for over a year.
Ambuj Mishra, a JNU student and state media convenor of the ABVP, told ThePrint, “We met the University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman last week, and as per the information shared by him, a total of Rs 538.36 lakh has been released by the UGC for fellowship grants over the past five months. Why has the money not reached the students?”
On 22 August, a group of students led by the ABVP had gathered at the finance office demanding the release of fellowship grants, which is when the scuffle took place.
The students accused the administration of carrying out an attack on them, while the administration held the students responsible for the incident.
The ABVP claimed that 12 students, including its JNU unit president Rohit Kumar, suffered injuries.
A senior police officer reportedly said that JNU students had filed five complaints against the two security officers, Naveen Yadav and Surya Prakash.
“We have received the complaints and are looking into the matter,” the officer was quoted as saying.
(Edited by Siddarth Muralidharan)