As the political and legal battle is going on outside campus over arrest of JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, divisions in the union came to the fore on Friday after the students’ council passed a resolution to “identify,” “isolate” and ensure “punishment” for those involved in the February 9 event. JNUSU joint secretary Saurabh Sharma, also member of right-wing ABVP, called the council meeting in which six resolutions were passed relating to the February 9 event. However, JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora termed the council meeting unconstitutional.
Mr Sharma said that the JNUSU council meeting was called to discuss the ongoing crisis in the campus and the members present passed the resolution condemning the incident. “In the meeting, JNUSU council resolved that it will work towards identifying, isolating and ensuring punishment for subversive elements that brought bad name for JNU. They are minuscule section of JNU community and university completely disassociate against these elements,” added Mr Sharma.
Terming the council meeting unconstitutional, Ms Shora said that by calling a council meeting in the absence of the JNUSU president and the JNUSU general secretary reeks of political opportunism and insensitivity, as it is an attempt to hijack the platform of JNUSU at a time when the president of the union is under arrest, when the general secretary of the union is facing sedition charges and when there is an atmosphere of fear in the campus.
“Attempts to hijack the students’ union platform are not new by the joint secretary, who has repeatedly placed his organisation ahead of the union, both literally and metaphorically, by issuing posters signed as “ABVP and JNUSU.” Such posters, which seek to conflate JNUSU with the organisation of any office-bearer, are unprecedented and a brazen bid to hijack the platform of JNUSU,” added Ms Shora. Mr Sharma, however, denied that allegation by the JNUSU vice-president and said that all the provisions of the JNUSU Act were followed in calling the meeting.
“Council meetings of JNUSU are called by the general secretary in consultation with the president but in absence of both joint secretary is empowered to call the meeting by giving a notice of 24 hours. Yesterday, I gave the notice calling JNUSU council meeting,” said Mr Sharma.
In other resolutions, the council condemned the anti-India and pro-Pakistan sloganeering and demanded a thorough investigation and appealed to all JNU members to desist from interfering with the due process of law. The council felt that the February 9 event had sent a wrong message to the entire nation, people are angry and anguished. “We want to assure them (nation) that the entire JNU disassociates from such condemnable incidents and we take the responsibility to act in a manner so that such incidents do not happens in the future. THE JNUSU resolves to restore the image of JNU and ensure its contribution in the onward march of country in future,” said the council resolution.
The JNUSU council also appealed to all responsible students, teachers, officers and staffs to come together and rebuild JNU image.
