JNU Students Paint "Messages" For Vice Chancellor In Administration Block

Students staging a protest in the JNU painted various messages for vice-chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar inside the administration block of the university on Wednesday as they barged inside the building to talk to him about the hostel fee hike.

By evening, the fee hike saw a partial rollback and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration said the clauses in the Draft Hostel Manual pertaining to the dress code and curfew timings were also removed.

During the day, hundreds of students, led by the JNUSU, barged inside the administration block to talk to the VC and on not finding him and other officials in the building, painted messages on the walls near his office.

"You are not our VC. Go back to your Sangh," they wrote on one of the doors to the VC's office. Another message written on the floor outside the office read, "Mamidala, Bye, Bye Forever."

"Bring Back Najeeb" was yet another message from the students for the VC on one of the walls and on a clock inside the administration block, they wrote, "Time 4 Revolution."

Najeeb Ahmed, a first-year M.Sc Biotechnology student of JNU, went missing under suspicious circumstances on October 15, 2016 from his hostel on the university campus. He remains untraceable.

On one of the walls of the administration block, the students wrote, "RIP VC."

"Look at what they are doing. They should show some respect," a JNU official said.

The students were protesting at the administration block against the Draft Hostel Manual, which they said had provisions for a fee hike, curfew timings and a dress code.

By evening, the university said there was a partial rollback of the fee hike and the clauses pertaining to the dress code and curfew were also removed.

The administration block houses the offices of top JNU officials, including that of the VC, and is also known as the "Pink Palace".

The Left-backed All India Students' Association (AISA) staged protests in solidarity with the students at the Jamia Millia Islamia, Ambedkar University and Delhi University (DU).

In DU, they burnt an effigy symbolising a fee hike and the alleged police brutalities on protesting JNU students outside the AICTE auditorium on Monday.

In Ambedkar University, they took out a protest march against the hostel fee hike in JNU and the New Education Policy, which they claimed had provisions for privatisation of education.