United Dalit Students’ Forum (UDSF), JNU
Dear friends,
This is to bring to the notice of the JNU community that since last few months, caste atrocities have been proliferating in JNU campus. Many incidents have come to our notice in which not only workers, non-teaching but also the students have been targeted. It is very sad that although these incidents came to the public notice no proper action has been taken against the perpetrators.
A very unfortunate incident happened on 1st November 2013, when a girl student had approached Dr. Harish Naraindas, Sr. Warden of Lohit Hostel regarding her eviction issue. She was physically assaulted and abused by saying “Your history is like this. You all students coming from categories and are pigs. You don’t deserve to be in JNU”. She immediately informed the incident to her friends and JNUSU. She also called Delhi Police. Immediately after the incident, all organizations reached the place of the incident, JNUSU office bearers and many teachers also reached the place of incident, but unfortunately the so-called progressive teachers of JNU started pressurizing the victim to negotiate with the Sr. warden. The office bearers of JNUSU who claim to be champions of gender justice outside and inside the campus, started behaving like agents of the Castiest-Brahmanical forces. They had joined with some faculty members and also started pressurizing the victim and UDSF members to compromise with the warden.
Sandeep Saurav, the present General Secretary, was present and he mentioned the names of UDSF members to the provost of Paschimabad. While mentioning the names of central committee members of UDSF, he told the teachers that ‘UDSF WALE KAAM BIGAD RAHE HAI SIR’. It is very sad that the JNUSU which has been given the mandate to stand and fight for the rights of the students has worked into the hands of the Brahmanical forces. UDSF strongly condemns their acts and demands a public apology.
This incident is not the first of its kind. There has been similar kind of incidents that happened likely in Koyna hostel. A Dalit girl was forced to change the hostel and hostel administration refused to provide the valid reasons. In another incident a senior resident of Kaveri hostel has been served notice to vacate the room. In these incidents the wardens and Dean of Students have behaved like dictators and no ‘due process’ was followed in these cases. All issues have been reported to JNUSU as well but they have maintained complete silence on these issues. Also, even in the viva-voce marks we can see a clear discrimination against the students from SC/ST and other deprived backgrounds but the JNU community in spite of tall claims of ‘progressiveness’ till date hasn’t done anything to remedy the discrimination.
UDSF appeals to the students and teachers community to stands against the Brahmanical forces of the campus and ensure that justice should be delivered to the victims. It is high time that the student community stood up to fight these issues at large.
2nd November 2013.
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