JNU reprimands ex-JNUSU Prez for protesting against the library committee one year ago

A year after protesting against the library committee holding a meeting without students participation, former JNU Students' Union President N Sai Balaji was sent a proctorial notice saying that the act was 'unbecoming of a student'. The Chief Proctor Dhananjay Singh had also warned Balaji to be "careful in the future", through the notice. It was after this meeting that news got out that the library budget had been slashed by 80 per cent.

The meeting in question was conducted on February 13, 2019, and no JNUSU member was allegedly invited. This was around the same time that the previous Students' Union alleged an 80 per cent cut in the library's budget. While the meeting was initially supposed to be held in the library, it was allegedly moved to the administration block later.

The timing of the notice - a whole year after the incident - was rather strange, given how much has been happening in JNU these past few months. "This act of Mr N Sai Balaji is unbecoming of a student of JNU. In view of this and keeping his career prospects in mind, a somewhat lenient view has been taken in the matter," reads the notice. "He is hereby warned and advised to be careful in the future. He must refrain himself must from getting involved in such activities that violate the norms of discipline of the university," it reads.

Even though the university prohibits students from protesting with 100 metres of the admin block, Balaji tells us that the protest was held respecting the restrictions. "It is ironic that they're warning me against this right now. We fought against the library budget cut here. The notice doesn't state any reasons," he says.

We had contacted Proctor Dhananjay Singh for a comment on the issue. However, his office had informed us that he was unavailable for commen