JNU rusticates entire JNUSU leadership, students say UGC protests the reason

Nearly a decade after the Modi government launched a crackdown on Jawaharlal Nehru University over alleged 'anti-national' sloganeering in 2016, the campus is once again at the centre of a major confrontation. While the pretext this time is different, the nature of the assault remains strikingly similar.

In an unprecedented move, the JNU administration has suspended all four elected office-bearers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) — the president, vice-president, general-secretary and joint secretary — and declared the campus out of bounds for them. Former JNUSU president Nitish Kumar has also been handed the same punishment.

Current JNUSU president Aditi Mishra, vice-president Gopika Babu, general-secretary Sunil Yadav, joint secretary Danish Ali, and former president Nitish Kumar have each been fined Rs 20,000 and barred from the campus for the winter and monsoon semesters of 2026.

The action follows a proctorial inquiry into an incident on 21 November 2025, during which students allegedly damaged facial recognition gates and CCTV cameras at B.R. Ambedkar Central Library, causing losses estimated at Rs 20 lakh.

Left-backed student groups such as AISA and the SFI described the punitive measures as a politically motivated crackdown on dissent, particularly against the university’s push for surveillance on campus.

Meanwhile, sections of the JNU faculty have demanded the removal of vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, accusing the administration of authoritarianism.

Several former JNU students, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the severity of the punishment is rooted in JNUSU’s strong opposition to the UGC’s proposed equity rules.

JNUSU general-secretary Sunil said, "This decision came just a day after we announced our plan to hold a protest on campus regarding the UGC regulation, which was stayed by the Supreme Court."

Although these rules were put on hold following a backlash from upper-caste groups, they believe the threat of their reintroduction remains, and that the students’ union has been deliberately targeted for its resistance.

JNUSU, long known for its progressive politics and aggressive protest culture, has consistently remained at the forefront of mobilisations against controversial UGC policies.

A former JNU student, now a faculty member at a central university in Delhi, said the campus has been reduced to a “graveyard for debate and discussion”, once considered the hallmark of JNU’s academic life.

He pointed out that days before the punishment was announced, Indresh Kumar, head of the RSS-affiliated Muslim Jagran Manch, had organised a seminar on campus, which was attended by several senior university officials.

Whether this event had any direct influence on the administration’s decision cannot be independently verified. However, the aggressive coverage by right-wing media platforms such as OpIndia, which once again targeted JNU, suggest that the issue goes beyond the alleged vandalism at the library.

JNU remains one of the few campuses in the country where, despite sustained efforts, the RSS and the BJP have failed to establish ideological dominance. For many, it continues to stand as a centre of academic excellence and critical thought — and for that reason, as a persistent challenge to the RSS’s worldview.