The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union representatives who went to meet the MHRD officials on December 10 came back to campus empty-handed. The students had hoped that the ministry would hand over the high power committee report but nothing of that sort happened. But what stood out was that officials from the JNU administration, including the Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar and Registrar Pramod Kumar, were present at the MHRD but did not meet the students, sources said.
The administration and the JNUSU took turns to discuss the issues with the MHRD officials including the Higher Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam. "The problem is that we never have a face-to-face meeting with the JNU administration. The MHRD took turns to meet either party and tried to solve the issue. We made it very clear that we will stick to our demands for a complete rollback of the hostel fee hike, the postponement of examinations and other issues," said JNUSU General Secretary Satish Chandra Yadav.
The students' union representatives had received a call from the ministry to attend the meeting late last night after their day-long clash with the Delhi Police. Semester-end examinations are scheduled from December 12 and the students' union has called for an exam boycott till their demands are met. The HRD Ministry had last month set up a three-member committee to recommend ways to restore normalcy in JNU and mediate between students and the university administration.
