Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University have started an indefinite sit-in protest in front of the Dean of Students' office. Their major demand is for the administration to open hostels for MA students and start allocating rooms for them. The students presented a memorandum to the DoS, Dr Sudheer Pratap Singh, with their demands and were assured that the varsity is planning to bring back students on campus this very month. But the students said that just a verbal assurance won't be enough and the protest will continue until the administration makes it official.
An order from the Deputy Registrar's office has called back "all final year PhD research scholars, including 9B students (both hostellers and day-scholars) who are required to submit their PhD theses on or before December 31". All PwD(Persons with Disabilities) students of the PhD program are allowed to enter the campus as well. But the MA students of JNU want to come back as well and want hostels too.
The MA students of the 2020-22 batch, said that it's been nine months since they have begun their programmes and have been pleading for "equality of opportunity, access and education". "We have repeatedly felt excluded from the imagination of social justice that JNU is synonymous with, as we haven't received education and intellectual guidance on an equal footing throughout these months. Our degrees are about to end and we are still requesting basic educational and infrastructural amenities. For most of us the dream of studying in JNU has been destroyed," said the students.
JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) is leading the protest in front of the DoS office and has resubmitted its plan for a phased return to the authorities. "The DoS said that the students will be brought back in September but they are starting by calling the PhD students again. These people have already been called back once. They can be just informed that they can come if they want to and the admin can start with allocating hostel seats to the MA students. The DoS has not given us anything in writing and we are not moving from here till he does," he said.
