The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) has called for an indefinite hunger strike, beginning Thursday, June 26, to intensify its ongoing protest against the university administration. The strike will follow a protest march starting at 9 pm from Ganga Dhaba to Sabarmati T-Point on Thursday.
The student union is demanding the reinstatement of the in-house entrance exam (JNUEE) for PhD admissions, revocation of eviction notices served to final-year PhD scholars, and guaranteed hostel accommodation until thesis submission. They are also calling for the withdrawal of all proctorial enquiries issued against students who participated in protests.
“The VC has backtracked on earlier commitments, ignored the democratic decision of the student body, and outright refused to engage with the union on the JNUEE issue,” reads a statement released by JNUSU.
The latest escalation follows weeks of confrontation between JNUSU and the university administration over the mode of PhD admissions. Students have been demanding the restoration of the JNU-conducted JNUEE, which was scrapped in favour of the University Grants Commission - National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET) under the National Testing Agency (NTA).
A referendum held on May 24 saw nearly 93 per cent of participating students vote in favour of reinstating JNUEE. The union says the shift to UGC-NET has made the process exclusionary, citing its percentile-based filtering and heavy reliance on viva, a stage that has often been criticised as discriminatory and lacking transparency, especially for students from marginalised backgrounds.
While the Vice-Chancellor Professor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit had initially indicated support for JNUEE’s reinstatement, student leaders say the administration has since refused to formally engage, insisting that all four elected office bearers, including the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)-affiliated Joint Secretary, be present for any meeting.
The Joint Secretary, however, has not been part of the JNUEE campaign, making consensus within the union unfeasible.
On June 20, JNUSU President Nitish Kumar, Vice-President Manisha, and General Secretary Munteha Fatima were blocked from meeting the VC, who allegedly instructed security to lock the gates of the administration block. After hours of waiting, the VC briefly appeared but reiterated her refusal to meet unless all four office bearers were present.
“We will launch a call for an indefinite hunger strike on campus, including an in-house entrance exam, revocation of eviction notices and a number of issues persistent on campus. Not once, but multiple times, we have tried to reach out to the VC regarding our concerns, but she has consistently refused to provide an answer. Now, we have to resort to a hunger strike. At first, the three JNUSU office bearers will launch the strike, and there is an open call for other student groups to join the fight,” said Munteha Fatima, General Secretary, JNUSU.