JNU, University of Hyderabad, IIT-Madras, Jadavpur University become political grounds
Q. Recently, there have been incidences involving students in few universities. Which of the colleges/universities were prominently highlighted in the news?
1) Jawaharlal Nehru University
2) University of Hyderabad
3) IIT-Madras
4) Jadavpur University- Published on 23 Feb 16a. 1, 2, 4
b. 2, 3
c. 1, 2
d. All of the above
ANSWER: All of the above
- IIT-Madras - In May 2015, an anonymous letter to the central government (Human Resource Development Ministry) alleged that a student body, the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, was involved in ‘creating hatred among students in the name of caste, against the honorable Prime Minister and Hindus’. Even as news of this letter was communicated to the IIT administration, the student body was derecognized and its activities curtailed. There was major outrage on Social Media sites. The government was criticized for banning a student body based on political criticism.
- JNU – There were pro-Afzal Guru Slogans and alleged anti-national slogans too. The police charged in the campus and arrested the JNU students’ union leader Kanhaiyya.
- Jadavpur University, Kolkata – After the JNU fiasco there were pro-Afzal Guru slogans in Jadavpur University too. Jadavpur University was on the boil as a group of people stormed into the campus on Wednesday, chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai and tearing posters, including those in support of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union leader Kanahaiya Kumar arrested on sedition charges. Majority of students said they did not support the slogans raised during the march. But the campus was filled with posters, some of which even seeking freedom for Kashmir and Manipur and critical of the Union government. The posters were attributed to a group of ‘radicals’.
- University of Hyderabad – Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula committed suicide after he was expelled from his hostel along with four other researchers. It all started after he was part of a small protest against the disruption of a film screening on the Muzaffarnagar riots in Delhi University by a Hindu right-wing student organization In August 2015, Rohith and four friends clashed with the RSS student wing after the ASA members organised a protest against the hanging of Yakub Memon and were dubbed “goons” by the ABVP. The five were banned by the university from the hostel and almost all public spaces on campus. Vemula and four of his friends, all Dalits and associated with a campus political group called the Ambedkar Students Association, had moved out of their hostel rooms after being suspended by the university administration. The students say they were allowed to attend classes and other academic sessions, but were barred from entering the hostels and common areas in groups and participating in student union elections. Lacking the means to afford private housing, they pitched a camp in front of the university shopping center and started a hunger strike protesting against their "social boycott". They called their camp Velivada - Dalit Ghetto.
