JNU students threaten hunger strike

The Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members also sat on a day-long dharna on the campus and threatened to intensify their stir if the imposition of Rs 10,000 fine on its leader Saurabh Sharma was not withdrawn. A big section of the JNU Teachers Association, including its president Ajay Patnaik, came in support of the Left-backed student unions. JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar ordered rustication of Umer Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and Mujeeb Gatto.The move came on the recommendation of a high-level committee which probed the February 9 incident on the campus and held them guilty of gross indiscipline. JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar was fined Rs 10,000. Refusing to comply with the administration’s order, students under the banners of All India Student Association, All India Students Federation and other Leftist groups staged a demonstration on the campus. They also burnt the copies of the report of the high-level committee on the recommendations of which JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar pronounced punishment to 21 students. JNU teachers association members also participated in the students’ protest and burning of the committee’s report. The vice-chancellor has not spared ABVP leader Sharma and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on him too. The enquiry committee had slammed "all office bearers” of the students union for their conduct on February 9, observing that none of them acted with "due responsibility”. "We reject the report which is casteist and biased. We also refuse to comply with the orders of the vice-chancellor on rustication and payment of fine,” Kanhaiya told reporters.   DHNS