Days after violence was unleashed allegedly by left-wing ‘students’ and outsiders in the controversial Jawaharlal Nehru University, the JNU Teachers’ Federation (JNUTF) has revealed that there have been sporadic attacks on teachers, their families and university officials at their workplace on a regular basis since 29th October 2019.
Giving a detailed chronology of events that unfurled in the university since 28th October 2019, the JNUTF said that the repeated appeal by the university officials to the local police and individual complaints in the police station by the teachers have not been taken seriously and the police have not intervened or acted timely to prevent recurrence of such violent incidents on the campus which has created an environment of fear in the campus.
The following is the brief chronological account of incidents that have happened since October 28, 2019, according to the press statement released by JNUTF.
28-October-2019:
- 10 AM: Inter Hall Administration (IHA) meeting at 10 a.m in the Convention Hall, JNU was disrupted by an unruly, slogan shouting, drum beating and physically assaulting mob of students led by some student leaders.
- 12 PM: The health of the Dean of Students (DoS) deteriorated. The on-duty doctor of the University Health Centre referred him to admit him to the Indian Institute of Spinal Injury, immediately. However, the visiting doctor was obstructed in performing her duty. The protesting students gheraoed and hijacked the ambulance and forcefully till 06:20 p.m. DoS called police PCR, that came and gone.
The students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had potentially endangered the life of a professor when they blocked the way of an ambulance in which the Dean was being taken for a health checkup. The students had then displayed ‘complete heartlessness and insensitivity’ towards the professor who fell sick with high blood pressure.
29-October-2019:The JNUTF states that the Dean of Students filed a formal police complaint against the violent behaviour of students observed on October 28, 2019. The entrance of most of the academic complexes was locked illegally by the protesting students.
30-October-2019: Lohit and Koyna wardens were gheraoed at their houses during the late hours of the night. One of the wardens was pregnant and the others too had small children who faced tremendous mental torture due to this unruly behaviour of the students. The wardens called JNU Security and Police, however, did not receive conducive support.
31-October-2019: Narmada, Shipra and Sabarmati wardens were gheraoed at their houses during late-night hours. Again, their families had to face a life-threatening situation, but no security or police help was provided despite calling PCR.
The wife of DoS had to face personal attacks and trolling on social media. This was a well-planned psychological attack by the students to bring the DoS under pressure and obstruct him from discharging his duties, normally.
01-November-2019: The IHA office was illegally locked by the agitators. Officers and staff were threatened with dire consequences and forcefully asked to vacate their work stations.
Chandrabhaga and Mahi-Mandavi hostel wardens were gheraoed at their houses during the late night. The Mahi-Mandavi warden belonging to minority community had to face slogans like, “Gaddar”. No security/police support was provided despite making repeated calls for safety and security, the JNUTF statement said.
02-November-2019: Tapti hostel warden was gheraoed at his house and faced a life-threatening situation.
03-November-2019: Narmada, Periyar, Kaveri and Jhelum hostel wardens and their families were gheraoed at their residences and faced the life-threatening situation. PCR called, that came and left.
05-November-2019: All provosts were gheraoed at their houses by the students and did not receive any security/police support.
06-November-2019: All Provosts along with the senior wardens of their respective Khands were gheraoed inside different hostels from 10 am to 3 pm. They were forced by the agitating students to sign pre-drafted documents/ minutes of the meeting/ resignation letters against their will and wisdom.
07-November-2019: Periyar hostel warden was gheraoed at his house. No security or police support was provided.
08-November-2019: Dr Vandana Mishra, the Assistant Professor at the School of International Studies was gheraoed and kept hostage for over 29 hours in the SIS II building, in her classroom. She was physically assaulted and mentally tormented by the protesting students in the most shocking manner.
After a series of requests to the Delhi Police, finally few police officials arrived in the civil dress and instead of taking appropriate action against the protesting students to release Dr Mishra, they tried to intervene in a different manner wherein they asked Dr Mishra to sign whatever the students were asking for. After a lot of efforts, she had has been released with police help.
In a despicable act, the students at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had kept faculty member, Dr Vandana Mishra, in illegal captivity on November 8, 2019. She was kept confined in her classroom in SIS building despite her physical condition deteriorated.
11-November-2019: The students gheraoed the convocation ceremony of the university and created a state of panic and severe law and order situation. Honourable HRD minister and other dignitaries were stuck and had to face the grave situation created by the students.
Thousands of students of the JNU had clashed with police on November 11 during their protest over fee hike on the varsity’s convocation day escalated, forcing HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ to stay inside the AICTE premises for over six hours.
Many students who got their degrees at the third convocation ceremony of the Jawaharlal Nehru University were left disheartened owing to the protests over fee hike as they felt their last day as a JNU student was “ruined”.
13-November-2019: VC office, administrative building and Swami Vivekananda statue were vandalised by the students in an unprecedented manner.
Since 13 November 2019 entire campus has been painted with ideologically provoking and demeaning slogans. Majority of the academic complexes have been illegally locked by the agitators. Students, teachers and staff members are being threatened for attending classes/ offices/ examinations et al giving rise to a situation in which discharging one’s duty became impossible.
The academic atmosphere has been vitiated by the agitators since then. It has also become difficult to take scheduled examinations and the fear of the lapse of the semester looms large on the horizon.
We had reported that how goons and students allegedly belonging to the left-wing students’ union of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had vandalised a soon-to-be inaugurated statue of Swami Vivekananda on campus.
16-November-2019: Female security officers were beaten up mercilessly by the agitating students at the administrative block while they were only doing performing their duties.
09-December-2019: Prof. Atul Kumar Johri was heckled, manhandled, chased, abused and physically assaulted by a group of violent agitators.
10-December-2019: Violent agitators tried to disrupt examination of engineering students scheduled in the School of Physical Sciences (SPS) and vandalised the laboratories. The agitators threatened the examinees, examiners, invigilators and tried to destroy the answer scripts.
A group of violent agitators tried to disrupt the examination of ‘Bhasha Indonesia’ that was scheduled in the School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies. The examinees, Examiners were threatened for life.
11-December-2019: Violent agitators tried to disrupt the examination of engineering students scheduled in the School of Physical Sciences (SPS). The agitators threatened the examinees, examiners, invigilators for life. Prof Umesh Ashok Kadam has been gheraoed and physically assaulted in the convention centre by the violent agitators.
The honourable High Court of Delhi directs the Delhi Police to give protection to the University officials and to vacate the administrative and academic complexes.
14-December-2019: Despite the presence of the Delhi police in a civil dress since 12th December, the Vice-Chancellor along with other University officials was attacked by a mob of around forty miscreants. The office of the Vice-Chancellor was vandalised by them, while the police remained a mute spectator.
The students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) had mounted an assault against the vice-chancellor (VC), M Jagadesh Kumar, in the university campus. According to the vice-chancellor, 10-15 protesting students surrounded him but the on-duty security personnel rescued him from an imminent attack.
03-January-2020: Communication and Information Services (CIS) server was forcefully shut down by masked miscreants led by an Ex-JNUSU president to disrupt the registration process. The system was restored on 4th morning.
04-January-2020: Communication and Information Services (CIS) server was severely vandalised by masked miscreants resulting in the disruption of registration and internet services. Teachers and students abused, heckled and physically assaulted in front of SIS and SLL&CS.
On January 4, leftist groups had tried to stop students from registering for the winter semester. The students had disrupted the registration process for the winter semester by barging into the Centre for Information System office and cut off the power supply and damaged the servers to protest against the fee hike.
The Delhi Police have now filed an FIR against JNUSU President Aishe Ghosh and 19 others for attacking security guards and vandalizing server room on January 4.
05-January-2020: Masked miscreants targeted students who defied the diktats of boycotting registration at the administration building. Masked miscreants barged into Periyar Hostel and mercilessly assaulted a number of inmates.
Masked miscreants barged into Sabarmati Hostel and mercilessly assaulted a number of inmates. Two of the Sabarmati hostel wardens were beaten and chased by the masked assaulters A number of students and teachers were injured.
In its press statement, the JNUTF appealed to every stakeholder to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. “The perpetrators of violence must be booked. JNUTF also appeals the JNU community to leave the past behind and restore the academic environment of JNU for which the University is widely acknowledged. Any sort of differences should be resolved through debate and discussion. Let us understand the right to protest does not include the right to prevent,” it added.
