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HomeIndiaV-C Jagadesh Kumar came to JNU to change its character: HRD ministry...

V-C Jagadesh Kumar came to JNU to change its character: HRD ministry told PMO last year

HRD ministry wrote to PMO in November last year during fee hike protests that ‘there’s no love lost between the VC and the student community’.

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New Delhi: JNU vice-chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, at the centre of the campus violence controversy, had “come with an agenda to change the character of the university”, said an HRD ministry note to the PMO in November last year.

The note, accessed by ThePrint, also said change may be required but “the change should have been calibrated and brought-in through more innocuous means”.

Jagadesh Kumar, who became JNU V-C in 2016, has been criticised severely by faculty and students for his handling of the fee hike issue that started last year in October. And, now, after Sunday’s violence on campus, in which masked miscreants attacked students and teachers and vandalised property, calls for his removal have grown louder.

The November note was sent by the ministry to apprise the PMO of the situation following the fee hike protests. It had pointed out that the origin of the crisis that unfolded in JNU could be traced to the “non-recognition of the JNUSU by the VC on the grounds that election has not been conducted by the university authority as stipulated under the Lyngdoh Committee report”.

The ministry said, “The VC of the university has come with an agenda to change the character of the university. Whereas it may be required in many cases, the change should have been calibrated and brought-in through more innocuous means.”

ThePrint has reached the HRD ministry for a comment on its note through email and WhatsApp, but there was no response until the time of publishing this report.


Also read: JNU violence: Student bodies turning as intolerant, confrontational as national politics?


‘No love lost’

The note pointed out that the V-C had not met the agitating students even once and “administration of the university had come to a standstill”.

“There is no love lost between the VC and the student community. The VC hasn’t been meeting the students fearing their anger. There is hardly any communication between the administration and the students. The administration has come to a standstill and the students are on the rampage.”

The ministry had also said that in the absence of a “recognised leadership” — since V-C Jagadesh Kumar did not recognise JNUSU — the students “have been going berserk”.

“The situation is fast going out of control with the students becoming more and more restless, and a situation of rioting is fast emerging in the campus”.

A senior HRD ministry official told ThePrint that the situation could have been averted with some cooperation from the JNU V-C.

The official claimed Jagadesh Kumar not only refused to cooperate with the High-Powered Committee that was appointed by the ministry to settle fee issue but would also “get into constant conflict with the faculty”.

“He passed orders such as holding WhatsApp exams, which would water down the academic credibility of the institution,” added the official.


Also read: Few CCTV cameras on JNU campus, and a guard strength down by half from last year


 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Prof Jagdesh Kumar was a wrong choice for the Vice-Chancellor or head of any institution which required dealing with those that needed to be dealt more with Personal than Positional power.

    I got to read of his having been made Wardon of one of the hostels of IIT Delhi, it happened much before his appointment as the VC.

    And in a matter of a few days, the students of the hostel began to protest because of his interference in the menu or the day the students live in the hostel; he had to be removed very soon! The students who had never gone on strike did so.

    The situation turned normal.

    Is it possible for one to run the hostels of students just by rules or poking the nose on the food?

    How could a person have headed a university that too one like JNU, when the person couldn’t manage a hostel in an institution like the IIT where he was known commodity?

  2. Does this not prove contrary to what ” said bythe HRD ministry told PMO last year. “Contrary to what is preached is practiced, in reality” as to what said , to our Honouable Prime Minister ” Baashan se Saashan Nehi Hotha ” .

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