JNU profs accuse V-C of ignoring faculty decisions

Seven professors of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Thursday accused Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar of breaching conventions, and ignoring objections of the faculty over the decisions taken by him.

"This is not the way JNU has functioned in the past, when the V-Cs' decisions pertaining to schools and centres followed established procedures and had the support of faculty," said the statement signed by professors — Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Zoya Hasan, Utsa Patnaik, H S Gill, Deepak Nayyar and Anil Bhatti.

"In the past, the conventions have not only protected academic quality but also ensured academic autonomy in its functioning," the faculty members said, adding that V-C Jagadesh Kumar ignored objections from the faculty.

They further accused Kumar of breaching the convention by appointing a professor as the dean of the School of Social Sciences by superseding five seniors. "No V-C has in the past repeatedly gone against procedures of the functioning. This is far too arbitrary an action to be passed over lightly," the statement read.

The move comes two days after two prominent academics wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking his intervention in restoring the "atmosphere of healthy debate" within the university. The letter was accompanied by a petition signed by 1,800 people.