MPs join call for reinstatementof rusticated JNU students

Calls for the withdrawal of rustication notices issued to five Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students grew louder on Thursday.

Addressing mediapersons at the Press Club of India, MPs, including Congress’s Sashikanth Senthil, Raja Ram Singh (CPI-ML), Rajkumar Roat (Bharat Adivasi Party) and Manoj Kumar Jha (RJD), supported the demand for the reinstatement of the students.

Four JNU Students’ Union office-bearers and a former president of the student body have been rusticated for two semesters for “vandalism” during a protest held last year against the installation of a biometric system for entry into the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Central Library on the campus.

Mr. Senthil said the JNU administration is acting as a tool for its “political masters” and the action against the students was an “assault on the autonomy of public institutions”. Mr. Jha said universities should be spaces for dialogue, not “fortresses of surveillance”.