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YS Alone, a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University's (JNU) School of Arts & Aesthetics, has been due for the post as the dean of his department since 2021. However, he says that there has been no indication from the university that this will be sanctioned anytime soon.
Why? According to him, he is being targeted, along with 47 other teachers, for holding a one-day protest against the JNU administration in 2018. A "chargesheet" was filed against the professors by the JNU administration in July 2019.
In a report titled 'JNU: The State of the University,' released on 22 September, the JNU Teachers' Association (JNUTA) raised concerns over the deteriorating conditions of the academics at the university.
There has been no immediate reaction from the JNU administration to the report. The Quint reached out to the office of JNU VC Santishree Pandit but the emails sent to her did not elicit a response. The Quint then reached out to JNU's media coordinator who said, “the VC was very tied up,” and could not respond.
JNUTA highlighted a series of critical issues affecting the university –including falling academic standards, rule violations, admission issues, and 'arbitrary' leave policies.
Recent years have witnessed substantial changes in the JNU governance and these changes, according to the report, have had far-reaching consequences.
“…the process of destruction of the university unleashed from 2016 has continued abated, even after the change of the Vice Chancellor in February 2022," it stated.
In July 2019, the JNU administration filed a chargesheet against 48 teachers who participated in the one-day protest, by invoking the Central Civil Services (CCS) rules framed for government employees for conducting a protest a year prior to that.
The "chargesheeting" of the teachers by the then VC M Jagdeesh Kumar had been widely criticised as a move to curb the freedom of thought and expression by the teaching community. Taking prima-facie cognisance of the issue, the Delhi High Court stayed the matter in August 2019.
Professors whom The Quint spoke to claimed that the chargesheet was used as a way to harass them.
JNUTA President and Professor at JNU's School of Computer and Systems Sciences DK Lobiyal said, "We are seeing that promotions have been denied to our colleagues, whereas some teachers have been given extensions as chairpersons and deans beyond the tenure of a vice-chancellor."
Lobiyal added that though faculty promotions at the university were contentious under the previous administration under Kumar, nothing had changed after a change in leadership.
Professors also alleged that pensionary benefits were also denied to several teachers.
All the five professors whom The Quint spoke to claimed that "asking for leave resulted in harassment."
“Leave for academic purposes is a facility granted to teachers for their academic improvements and achievements, which ultimately benefit the institutions of higher learning. Unless there is any specific exigency, any leave that a faculty member is eligible for is expected to be granted as a matter of routine,” said the JNUTA report. However, restrictions have been imposed on such leaves, it added.
Saurajit Mazumdar, a Professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, had reportedly applied for a sabbatical leave on 1 May 2022. But his leave had to go through the 'Leave Committee' and was processed and was approved on July 2022.
The introduction of this committee as opposed to being discussed and passed in the Executive Council (EC) had hindered the academic leave processes, resulting in unreasonable demands and delays, the professors alleged.
"The process of granting leave, the process of promotions, or any such case, any matter that teachers have to take up, they are subjected to all kinds of harassment and victimisation. No one knows where the file is, or where the application is going. We have to run up and down the administrative offices and spend long periods of time in that particular process. The administration has built this kind of insensitivity, where there’s no accountability," Mazumdar said.
In the JNUTA report, teachers attributed the alleged harassment to "the consequences of bureaucratisation, administrative apathy and the insensitivity which are bred by a centralised structure of governance."
Mazumdar said that rules were being "manipulated" to create "unnecessary hurdles" for the teachers whose names were mentioned in the chargesheet.
"The usage of the chargesheet to victimise people did not happen earlier. But now, there are new ways of harassing teachers. An institution has to function on based on norms and as per an individual's wishes," Lobiyal added.
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