How JNU paid dearly for its V-C's silence
Through all the turmoil over JNU in the last two weeks, it sometimes seemed as if India's prime university had no vice-chancellor. All dialogue was being conducted by students. Everybody got their chance under the sun: students, teachers, police, alumni, politicians, journalists, even rowdy lawyers. Just one man managed to stay well away from the flash-bulbs: the V-C, Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar.
What a pity
The 12th V-C of JNU took up reigns on January 27, 2016. On his first day, he had announced that his focus would be on "nation building" and strengthening the varsity's "heterogeneous character". It's possible that he was bewildered by a massive crisis blowing up in his face within two weeks of his new assignment, and before he could experience or understand the 1,000-acre university.
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It's a pity though that the man, MJK to his students, who has taught electrical engineering at various IITs all his life and considers teaching to be his "pride and joy" (he keeps pdfs of comments and feedback from his students on his CV) got no chance to become a favourite in the campus, like his predecessor SK Sopory, and now finds himself pitted against the very people he is supposed to guard and guide.
Global spotlight
In a country where no one is encouraged to ask questions, MJK's silence would have been glossed over, but for the international spotlight. Noam Chomsky, one of the world's most cited scholars, sent an e-mail from MIT on February 21: "Many of us remain very concerned about the crisis in JNU… Why did you allow the police on campus when it is clear that this was not legally required?"
Scholars from University of Toronto have asked: "Why have you abrogated the fundamental principle of free speech on your campus?" Harvard professor Homi K Bhabha, a Padmabhushan awardee, has written: "Instead of engaging with the diversity of opinion expressed by your own students and faculty, the members of your very own community, you have resorted to criminalisation of dissent.
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Other scholars from Harvard have advised him to "stand up against government pressure," because the failure to do so will "rebound" on JNU in the most negative way.
Scholars from Tokyo University have just brought out a Statement of Support for the teachers and students of JNU, emphasising how "concerned and disturbed" they are by the recent situation in the university.
Nowhere to hide
There's no place to hide anymore. Questions have been doing the rounds about MJK for a while: his RSS link and how he has been working with its science wing, Vijnana Bharti; on why an engineer was appointed to give academic leadership in a university that doesn't have engineering; on how he managed to pip other heavy-weight contenders from within the university to the post and so on.
But now with global censure, MJK will have to prove his mettle or face shame among his peers internationally. Earlier, he had appealed to "all" political parties not to "interfere" in the matters of university.
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Now, he has agreed to expand the internal three-member inquiry committee and protect the five students booked under sedition charges. Moreover, criticised for not following protocol and allowing the police in, he has sent out the word that the university will keep police off the campus.
Meantime, the man from Mamidala village in Andhra Pradesh keeps hope floating. As one of the few high achievers of a village that has just about 2,000 literates, he must be adept at swimming against the tide.
As a martial arts enthusiast, he must be disciplined and focused. But it's mostly his professed love for students that promises breakthrough changes. Fingers crossed.