New Delhi: In signs of the row over the raising of alleged anti-national slogans in the Jawaharlal Nehru University premises re-escalating, JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar today debunked the punitive action handed by the university administration and said he will not furnish the penalty Rs 10,000 imposed on him by the university.
Contending that the punitive action handed down on the basis of a "farcical" probe was "simply unacceptable", Kanhaiya said that the report of the university committee that recommended the fine on Kanhaiya and the rustication of JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya will be burnt down.
"We refuse to accept the report of the high-powered committee. We will not fill any penalty. We will burn the committee's recommendation paper. We will launch an agitation starting tomorrow," Kanahiya said.
Terming the decision against them as "unacceptable", Anirban and Umar earlier alleged that the authority's action amounted to a "witch-hunt" under the "diktats" of RSS.
"The JNU administration declares its allegiance to RSS, once again! After allowing police to enter campus to unleash the worst repression...Now the JNU admin has come down with its own list of punishments.
"A farce is what this inquiry has been from day one, made to witch-hunt and punish students by hook or crook. Do we need to remind you, Mr Jagdish Kumar (JNU VC) that unlike you the students and teachers of this campus are not pliant stooges of the RSS," Umar posted on Facebook.
He said Hyderabad Central University's deceased Dalit student Rohith Vemula was their "inspiration", urging the students for a "fight back".
JNUSU vice president Shehla Rashid Shora said, "We will launch a countrywide campaign to expose this government's anti-student, anti-Dalit character."
Shehla said the action against the students was based on "sheer vendetta and a biased inquiry" and "one-sided" statements from ABVP members.
"The VC is taking directions from the Central govt. He should have acted first as an academician and then as an RSS loyalist. Rakesh Bhatnagar, the head of the committee, is the treasurer of anti-reservationist Youth for Equality, and most students who have been punished belong to Dalit, Muslim and backward castes," she said.
JNU today slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on JNUSU president Kumar and rusticated PhD scholars Umar and Anirban for varying duration in connection with the controversial February 9 event for which they were charged with sedition, an action which had triggered widespread outrage and protests.
Based on the findings of a committee, Umar has been rusticated for one semester and slapped with a fine of Rs 20,000, Anirban has been rusticated till July 15.
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