‘Shocking’: BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi asks Centre to sack JNU V-C

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Jan 09, 2020: Veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Thursday weighed in on the stand-off between Jawaharlal Nehru University students and the Vice Chancellor with a clear advice to the government to sack V-C Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar.

Joshi, who was the education minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, cited reports that the education ministry had twice advised the vice chancellor to take steps to arrive at a working formula to resolve the issue of enhanced fees at the university, Hindustan Times reported.

 

“It is shocking that the VC is adamant for not implementing the government proposal. This attitude is deplorable and in my opinion such a VC should not be allowed to continue on this post,” Joshi tweeted on Thursday evening, hours after scores of university students were detained for trying to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Jagadesh Kumar has been facing nationwide criticism, particularly after masked goons entered the university campus under his watch on Sunday evening and thrashed students. He has been targeted for allegedly doing little to stop the goons and not calling the police which waited at the gates of the university.

Kumar has also been widely criticised for not reaching out to his students who were beaten with sticks, rods and hammers.

On Tuesday, he sought to offer an explanation for the delay in calling the police, telling reporters that the campus has its own security.

The vice chancellor has also been the centre of attacks from within the campus, with the students’ union and the university’s teachers’ association demanding his exit.

When the vice chancellor constituted a committee to probe violence on the campus on Sunday, the teachers’ association quickly rejected the step.

“First of all, we do not want any internal inquiry as long as this Vice-Chancellor is there. We want him to go. And, how can we expect a fair inquiry in the matter when the panel is completely biased. biased. We reject this committee,” JNUTA president DK Lobiyal said, underlining that the committee appointed by the vice chancellor is “highly unlikely to conduct a fair inquiry”.