JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was fined Rs 10,000.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya today said the
decision to rusticate them from the university was "unacceptable" and termed as "farce" the inquiry by a high-level committee even as the students' union threatened a countrywide campaign on the matter.
In his reaction, JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been fined Rs 10,000 by the university administration, said the punitive action handed down on the basis of a "farcical" probe was "simply unacceptable" and that the Union rejects it.
"JNUSU rejects the punishment handed down by the administration on the basis of a farcical committee!" Mr Kumar tweeted.
Terming the decision against them as "unacceptable", Mr Bhattacharya and Mr Khalid alleged the authority's action amounted to a "witch-hunt" under the "diktats" of the RSS.
"The JNU administration declares its allegiance to RSS, once again! After allowing police to enter campus to unleash the worst repression...now the JNU admin has come down with its own list of punishments.
"A farce is what this inquiry has been from day one, made to witch-hunt and punish students by hook or crook. Do we need to remind you, Mr Jagdish Kumar (JNU VC) that unlike you the students and teachers of this campus are not pliant stooges of the RSS," Mr Khalid posted on Facebook.
He said Hyderabad Central University's deceased Dalit student Rohith Vemula was their "inspiration", urging the students for a "fight back".
JNU students' union vice president Shehla Rashid Shora said, "We will launch a countrywide campaign to expose this government's anti-student, anti-Dalit character."
Ms Shora said the action against the students was based on "sheer vendetta and a biased inquiry" and "one-sided" statements from ABVP members.
"The vice chancellor is taking directions from the Central government. He should have acted first as an academician and then as an RSS loyalist. Rakesh Bhatnagar, the head of the committee, is the treasurer of anti-reservationist Youth for Equality, and most students who have been punished belong to Dalit, Muslim and backward castes," she said.
JNU today slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar and rusticated PhD scholars Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for varying duration in connection with the controversial February 9 event for which they were charged with sedition, an action which had triggered widespread outrage and protests.
Based on the findings of a committee, Mr Khalid has been rusticated for one semester and fined Rs 20,000, Mr Bhattacharya has been rusticated till July 15.