Revision as of 16:07, 15 October 2016

Rock carvings

See Delhi: J for more about the 'mediaeval' rock carvings discovered in the JNU campus.

Untoward incidents

Note: JNU remains India’s finest seat of higher learning and research in the social sciences. Its campus is quite peaceful and safe. The incidents mentioned below represent less than 1 per cent of JNU’s students. Therefore, it is unfortunate that the first entries about JNU on Indpaedia are about the seamier side. Indpaedia is unlikely to start accepting articles directly from its readers before 2014 or 2015. Till then JNU alumni, students and others can send articles/ paragraphs about the positive side of JNU as messages to facebook

'Different’ JNU loses sheen

Cases Of Ragging, MMS Scandals, Clashes Haunt Campus

Manash Pratim Gohain TNN

The Times of India 2013/08/01

New Delhi: It always prided itself on being ‘different’ but recent cases of ragging, alleged rape, MMS scandals and clashes with cops have dented Jawaharlal Nehru University’s image. The July 2013 incident has shocked everyone associated with the university, and many see it as a low point that calls for introspection and action.

PREVIOUS CASES

July 2013: Student, a jilted lover, tries to murder girl and then commits suicide

Jun 3, 2013: An alumnus held on allegation of rape of a student in Narmada hostel

Jun 3, 2012: MMS scandal

Feb 11, 2011: Porn CD scandal; 2 students expelled

Nov 23, 2009: Students clash with cops after a student was allegedly molested by outsiders

Aug 13: First incident of ragging where an MCA student lodged a complaint and university officials caught seniors red-handed

Spurt in molestation, stalking cases in JNU

Raj Shekhar TNN

The Times of India 2013/08/01

Police say, JNU campus is not a particularly safe place. What’s worrying is the recent upswing in cases of molestation and stalking. Some gun-runners had confessed to delivering country-made pistols near Delhi University and JNU campuses to people who looked like students.

Sources say crimes against woman are frequently reported from the campus now.

In June 2013, a JNU alumnus was arrested for allegedly molesting and trying to rape a 21-year-old student inside Narmada Hostel after a party.

In June 2013, an English literature student was allegedly molested by two students of her class inside Lohit Hostel. A case of molestation was registered at Vasant Kunj police station and two men, Rajiv Kumar and Gautam Vashishth, were arrested. Recently, a 57-year-old canteen incharge was also arrested.

A foreign student had also alleged molestation on the campus. The girl was friendly with the accused, a PhD student. On the day the alleged incident occurred, she had lunch with him in his room before he molested her.

In October 2013, a PhD scholar at JNU’s School of Languages was suspended after he allegedly molested a girl inside a university hostel. The Vasant Vihar police registered a case. “The victim was a history student at DU and claimed she was invited to the accused’s room in JNU’s Brahmaputra Hostel where she was locked up and molested,” a police source said.

In November 2011, a 35-year-old PhD scholar was arrested for allegedly molesting his 14-year-old domestic help. The girl, who was from Odisha, worked for and lived with Mohammed Azimuddin and his wife at JNU’s Mahanadi Hostel.

Sexual Harassment

2015: services of an assistant professor terminated

The Times of India Dec 22 2015

Jawaharlal Nehru University on Monday terminated services of an assistant professor after a varsity inquiry committee found him guilty in a case of alleged sexual harassment filed by a foreign scholar pursuing research under him.

The decision was taken at an emergent meeting of Jawaharlal Nehru University's Executive Council, the varsity's statutory decision making body .

The complainant was pursuing research under the professor's supervision.

“A research scholar, working under the supervision of the professor, had alleged that she was sexually abused by the professor.Subsequently , an inquiry was instituted by the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), the university watchdog for dealing with such issues,“ an official source said.

Why JNU is so political

The Times of India, Mar 02 2016

Shreya Roychowdhury

Jawaharlal Nehru University was never going to be Delhi University. An unusual admission policy adopted soon after its establishment has ensured its very DNA is different. It also explains the diversity of its students’ union and why it makes nearly every struggle—Vemula, northeast, Kashmir, adivasis, dams and nuclear plants—its business. Students, teachers and even members of the administration agree that JNU ultimately owes much of its politics and its atmosphere, to “deprivation points” awarded to candidates from backward districts, women, transgender, Kashmiri migrants and those from defence backgrounds.

Census data is studied to draw up a list of districts according to literacy rates, percentage of non-agricultural workers, even “agricultural productivity per hectare”; these are divided into “quartiles” one and two with points assigned.

As AISA chief Sucheta De observes, in JNU, affirmative action begins even before reservation.

“There is representation of every part of India. And each group brings its own idea of the nation and nationalism,” observes V Lenin Kumar, former JNUSU president who was ousted from SFI for disagreeing with CPI(M)’s stand on Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for presidency and Nandigram.

The 27% OBC reservation has also contributed to JNU’s uniqueness. Incidentally, the All India Backward Students’ Front, established to fight for implementation of this quota, also organised “Mahishasur Shahadat Divas”. According to the administration, women account for 57% of the student population on the campus.

There are 141 quartile-I districts—most backward—with the largest numbers in Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh; and 144 in quartile-II. Some states, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram, have only Quartile II districts.

“You will find students from Kalahandi (Odisha) as well as from St Stephen’s,” says former JNUSU vice-president Anant Prakash. The present general secretary, Rama Naga, is from Kalahandi while president Kanhaiya Kumar hails from Bihar. “Over the years we’ve had supporters of Godse, Charu Majumdar, Naga separatists, Manipuri rebels and Assam’s ULFA,” says Anand Kumar who has studied and taught at JNU.

And the different groups have always found ways to settle their differences without writing, as AISF’s Aparajitha Raja puts it, “squealing letters” or ministers wading in.

See also

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU)

Jawaharlal Nehru University: ‘sedition’ case, 2016