JNU students demand scrapping of UGC-NET for PhD admissions, JNUSU announces hunger strike

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) announced a protest march and an indefinite hunger strike demanding the reinstatement of the JNU Entrance Exam for PhD admissions, among other things.

This is Karthikeya, and let’s get right into it, in today’s episode of Straight Up by EdexLive.

The announcement of the protest and subsequent hunger strike comes amid talks between the JNUSU’s office bearers and Vice-Chancellor Prof Santisree Dhulipudi Pandit about the issue falling through.

According to the JNUSU, Vice-Chancellor Pandit, who initially seemed open to the idea, suddenly refused to engage, stating that all four office bearers of the union must make the demand unanimously for it to be considered.

This complicates the situation, as Joint Secretary Vaibhav Meena belongs to the Sangh-backed ABVP and has not joined his Left-leaning colleagues in these meetings, possibly due to bitter ideological and political differences between the two factions.

Further, when the rest of the JNUSU, namely, President Nitish Kumar, Vice-President Manisha, and General Secretary Munteha Fatima, attempted to meet the VC to discuss this issue on June 20, the gates of the administrative bloc were locked by the campus security, thus preventing their entry.

This refusal to engage, therefore, led to the announcement of the hunger strike. At 9 pm tomorrow, June 26, the JNUSU will stage a protest march from Ganga Dhaba to Sabarmati T-Point on the JNU campus, following which the hunger strike will begin.

The JNUSU has been calling for the abolition of centralised entrance exams like CUET and UGC-NET for admissions, in favour of the in-house JNUEE for about a year now.

Last year, the previous office-bearers of the JNUSU also staged a 17-day hunger strike, with the reinstatement of JNUEE as one of the key demands. While the vice-chancellor initially responded positively to this development, the administration eventually walked back on it.

This demand also seems to be supported by a significant chunk of the university’s student population. A referendum conducted by the current JNUSU in late May revealed that 93 per cent of the participants were in favour of bringing back the JNUEE for PhD admissions.

The sentiment seems to stem from the perception of the UGC-NET as an exclusionary exam, with percentile-based filtering and heavy reliance on viva, which has often been criticised as discriminatory against students from marginalised communities.

In the days leading up to this protest, the JNUSU also held open discussions on the discriminatory nature of the UGC-NET, which stressed the importance of reinstating the JNUEE.

In addition, the JNUSU also demands the 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.