New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which was attacked by a masked mob Sunday night, has CCTV cameras only at the main gate and the administration block, Delhi Police officials and university administration told ThePrint.
The university also has just half the guards it had last October. The administration had last year recruited 270 former army men to guard the campus, in place of a 500-strong contingent of private security guards.
The attack by the masked miscreants had raised serious questions on the lack of security on campus that has over 5,000 students and nearly 600 faculty members.
JNU registrar Pramod Kumar, though, blamed students for the lack of CCTV cameras on campus. He said a proposal to install the cameras all over the campus was passed by the executive council three years ago, but it was opposed by the students’ union.
Some students had even removed CCTV cameras at the time, saying it was an invasion of privacy.
“The JNU Students Union does not see any necessity or logic in subjecting the whole campus to such kind of surveillance. JNU as a university has been known for preserving the democratic right to privacy along with generally being exceptionally safe and secure,” the students union had written to Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar in 2017.
“In the absence of proper CCTV cameras on campus, the attackers could have managed to get in from any of the six entrance gates of the university, without being identified,” said a faculty member who lives on campus.
“How will the police identify attackers if they have entered from other gates? All this raises serious questions on safety on the campus.”
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Students question security guards
In wake of the violence, students and faculty members have accused the security personnel on campus of not having done their job.
Security in the university is manned by former army personnel recruited by the university administration through Army Welfare Placement Organisation (AWPO).
Many students ThePrint spoke to, however, said the guards were mute spectators when the attacks unfolded.
“On Sunday night, I spoke to the guards at my hostel and asked them why they did not act when students were being beaten up,” a student at Brahmaputra hostel said. “They told me that they have been asked not to react when student scuffles happen.”
Other students too alleged that the guards were following orders from the administration.
“They are retired from the Army and they do not want to get into all this, because they want to support students,” Zainab, a final year student from JNU, said. “But the V-C wants something else and they are just following the orders.”
When the new guards were brought in, students had complained about the lack of numbers.
JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh had written to the JNU administration last year about the change in security apparatus and the reduced number of guards.
“The new guards are not enough in numbers to man such a huge campus,” Ghosh had earlier told ThePrint. “There are no guards in hostels and libraries at night and students face a security threat. We gave a complaint in this regard to the administration but they did not act on it.”
ThePrint reached the JNU administration for a response to the students’ charges that the guards were under orders to stay away, but there was no comment.
A senior security official, however, disputed the charges on the condition of anonymity.
“This is a false allegation. There is no such brief,” the official said. “A few guards cannot do anything when they are surrounded by a large mob. Some guards were even beaten up during the clash.”
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The same people who didn’t want security now complains about the lack of it. Google for yourself and see how the JNU left wing extremists argued against security. However, this in no ways justifies the current violence on the campus. Many of us are tired of JNU and it’s endless anti-national politics. It is time to shut down this university and the students and faculty transferred to a campus in Jharkhand where they can be closer to their comrades.