DUTA PRESS RELEASE: December 6, 2018

JNU's academic community has courageously continued to stand up to a series of vindictive attacks, initiated by the JNU VC and his administration, against the University's progressive character, academic freedom and democratic functioning. The recent autocratic moves to impose CCS rules on JNU teachers, deny them leaves and salaries and accuse them of being responsible for illegal cuts in research seats are all designed to break the united resistance of teachers and students and defend the brazenly corrupt regime of the current VC, M. Jagadesh Kumar.

That the current JNU VC is an anxious tin-can despot bent on destroying trust and intellectual camaraderie between teachers and students is borne out by his continuous refusal to engage with academic arguments and allow debate on any agenda tabled in the meetings of the AC and the EC.

The DUTA expresses solidarity with the JNUTA and its ongoing struggle to restore transparency, democratic functioning and discussion-based decision-making.

The DUTA appeals to the Chancellor Prof. V. K. Saraswat to intervene and enquire into the concerns that the JNUTA has expressed against the autocratic functioning of the VC.