JNU ranking is a political move, say students

Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, after the ministry of human resources development (MHRD) released the all- India ranking of universities for the first time, have described the move as a political decision as JNU and Hyderabad Central University, which got the fourth place, were in the media glare this year.

Aakansha Natali, a Ph.D. student in international studies, said: “The ranking has been done for the first time and I don’t know on what criteria it has been done but definitely JNU, being such a liberal institution in its thoughts, education and culture, deserves this position and could have been placed higher.”

Although Natali did not skip the political angle to the ranking as she said: “JNU was the only point of attraction in the whole of the nation, maybe this was a political move by the BJP-led Central government. We became known for the anti-national activities that were allegedly conducted in the university,”

JNUSU general secretary Saurabh Kumar Sharma seemed happy with the ranking. He said the university could have been better but could not due to the bad name the Leftists in the institution had brought to it. “Studying in JNU is the best experience of my life and everything was fine until the Leftists created havoc by raising anti-national slogans. Besides, the university got such a high position in the ranking because of its science students, teachers, researchers and their work. The students of history, social studies does everything else except concentrate on education and research,” said Sharma.

Meanwhile, some students opined that JNU is a temple of freedom of expression and debate and dissent has always been its culture but right-wing groups have unnecessarily given a wrong impression about the university in everyone’s eyes and since it is a BJP-led government in the Centre, it got the third ranking and not the first.

Anshul Trivedi, a Ph.D. student in history, said: “Nowhere will you find such a fantastic place to study. Here we can even disagree to our teachers and put forward our views without being silenced. Our infrastructure, quality teachers and students cannot be compared with other universities and hence we deserve rank one, but after ABVP created a major hue and cry about anti-India slogans.”