JNUTA slams FIR over slogans, calls it 'criminalisation of protest'€™

New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) The JNU Teachers' Association on Wednesday slammed the university administration for seeking an FIR over slogans raised during an event on the campus and accused it and Delhi Police of criminalising protest.

The teachers' body was referring to the event organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) to mark the sixth anniversary of the January 5, 2020 campus attack, where slogans -- allegedly against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah -- were raised.

The Delhi Police said an FIR in the matter has been registered, following a complaint from the university administration.

In a statement titled 'Stop the Criminalisation of Protest', the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) said the administration, through its chief security officer, had taken a "ridiculous position of asking the Delhi Police to register an FIR on simply the raising of slogans" at the event. It alleged that both the university administration and the police had earlier failed to act against those responsible for the 2020 violence.

"The JNU administration and the Delhi Police are precisely those that failed to first prevent the undeniably criminal act of violence six years ago, and then found themselves 'unable' to identify and take action against those responsible," the statement said.

Drawing parallels with the 2016 row, the teachers' body claimed the latest action was part of a pattern to delegitimise dissent. A sedition case was registered against student leaders from the university following alleged "anti-national" slogans raised at a gathering on February 9, 2016.

"The real purpose of this drama is only to legitimise the throttling of all protest and to destroy the democratic ethos of the university that had been the bedrock of its success as a public institution," it said.

The association said it saw the FIR episode as evidence that "10 years of the pursuit of the agenda of destroying JNU has failed to vanquish the spirit of the university", adding that resistance to what it termed the administration's authoritarianism "has remained alive".

It also condemned what it described as attempts to malign the university through sections of the media and reiterated to continue its struggle "in defence of the university", while appealing to faculty to remain vigilant "against any provocations".

The statement was signed by JNUTA president Surajit Mazumdar and secretary Meenakshi Sundriyal. PTI VBH PRK PRK