The JNU students have rejected the punishment meted out to them by the university’s internal panel probe committee and decided to go on a strike starting today.
The students, according to a report in The Hindu, along with the members of the JNU teachers’ association, burnt pages of the report and said they would sit on an indefinite hunger strike from Wednesday.
“We had opposed the formation of the HLEC earlier and now we reject the punishments given to students based on the recommendations of the same panel. When the committee is questionable, its result will always be questionable. It is a casteist and anti-reservation committee, which was headed by Rakesh Bhatnagar, the head of youth for equality cell, who is known for his caste-based treatment with students,” JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar said. He is one of the punished students.
The JNU on Monday had rusticated Umar Khalid and two other students for varying duration and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with the February 9 event on the campus against Afzal Guru’s hanging.
The university administration has said it will stick to its decision in the matter. “We will go by whatever has been written in the letters sent to these students,” JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar told The Hindu.