Signature campaign begins in JNU

Remove “hideous grills” in front of Freedom square!

Qvernight grills have been erected and flower pots kept and freedom barricaded and the students of Jawaharlal Nehru university are again forced back to protest mode . This time the university administration decided to put iron grills in front of the ‘Freedom square’ which has been the main place for students’ to come together for any democratic debates and activism.

JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar told the media, “Grills have been put only in the car parking area at the side entrance to the administrative block to carve out some space for office facilities as there is space crunch here.”

The JNUSU have begun collecting signatures for a petition asking the administration to remove the grills by December 19^th. In a letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor, M Jagadesh Kumar, the students of JNU said:

“We, the undersigned members of the JNU community, note with utter shock and resentment, the repeated attempts by the JNU administration to clampdown on protests and criminalise democratic struggles. In its latest attempt to curb protests, the University authority surreptitiously grilled the front of the Administration Block on the night of 12/12/16 and subsequently covered the adjoining areas with flower pots”

“JNU has historically rejected tyranny of any form and we shall not tolerate the highhandedness of your administration too. We once again request you to immediately remove those hideous grills from the Administrative Block, latest by 19 December 5:00 PM and restore the space for protests and programmes.”

The letter further says “The university is accountable to its students, teachers, staffs, karamcharis and workers and members of the campus community are fully within their rights to protest around the Administration Block where the members of administration are present”.

History behind JNU’s Freedom square

When the former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and his colleagues were charged with sedition,arrested and jailed, earlier this year, many students had camped here while on a hunger strike. The students have currently been using the space for an indefinite sit-in to demand justice for Najeeb Ahmed, the JNU student who has been missing for nearly two months now. This has traditionally been the main site of student dissent in JNU.

Reacting to the move, the JNU Students’ Union president Mohit Pandey said grilling the sit-in site would not stop protests at the Administration Block.“This shows the JNU V-C’s idea of a university where, instead of talking to students, he wants to save face by erecting structures of iron and cement,” said Mr. Pandey.

JNUSU general secretary Satarupa Chakrabarty told the media that signatures would be collected till students return to campus after their holidays in January, following which the mode of resistance will be decided.