They say that everything comes at a price. For N Sai Balaji, the President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, the price of dissent was his MPhil. A now first year PhD student in JNU's School of International Studies, Balaji received an email from the administration of Friday noon, saying that his MPhil thesis evaluation was blocked by the Chief Proctor since there was a pending inquiry against him.
Balaji, who submitted his MPhil thesis in 'Negotiation linkages between climate change and agriculture: Role of State and non-state actors in 2018', is facing two enquiries against him right now. While the first one was for raising slogans against the government, the Vice Chancellor and right-wing organistaions, the second one is for participating in a march called by contract workers in JNU to celebrate the court's 'Equal work, equal pay order'.
The email had asked Balaji to contact the Chief Proctor's Office for a further enquiry. But Balaji, on the other hand, said that he will not comply with the order and that this was yet another attempt by the fascist government and administration to suppress dissent. "I worked hard for this degree. If this is their way of dealing with students who protest, let them do it. People with fake degrees wouldn't understand the value of real education," says Balaji.
"The JNU VC and the Modi Govt must know that no amount of victimisation of students or student leaders will make us bow down to the authoritarian regime. The students, along with teachers and workers will fight back against the JNU VC and the anti-people Modi Government," said the JNUSU in a statement, condemning this.
