PUDR condemns the decision of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to declare 8 students out of bounds of the campus, rusticate 7 of them for 1-2 years, and fine the three office-bearers of JNUSU. The administration’s action against these 11 students – in response to a number of students gheraoing the Registrar on 19 February 2007 – is completely out of proportion and is all the more condemnable because the students had tendered individual apologies in writing. The university’s action has pushed to the background the context for
the student agitation: the mistreatment and exploitation of contract workers in JNU for many years. A PUDR investigation and earlier surveys by student groups highlighted the widespread non-payment of statutory minimum wages on JNU campus. It was when the administration refused to look into the matter, began demanding that the students stop the agitation and tore posters put up by the students that highlighted this non-payment of minimum wages, and violations by the administration of the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 and other laws, that students gheraoed the Registrar.

The punishment meted out to the students is in sharp contest to the prevarication by the JNU administration, in its capacity as their ‘principal employer’, over the issue of exploitation of contract workers. Making the “illegal confinement” of the Registrar a bigger issue than the violation of the rights of hundreds of contract workers is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from the question of minimum wages and working conditions in JNU. The punishment meted out to these 11 students also seeks to target the tradition of radical
student political activity and dissent in JNU, The university that claims to promote scientific temper and social engagement is punishing them for precisely living up to their social responsibility.

PUDR therefore demands that the Vice-Chancellor of JNU withdraw the rustication order and instead of penalising the students, hold an independent inquiry into the violation by JNU of its statutory obligations towards contract labour employed by them in their capacity as the ‘principal employer’.

Shashi Saxena
(Secretary, PUDR)