Clarifications about Clarifications Needed, JNU and UGC!

Many of you may have read JNUTA’s detailed memorandum to the UGC Chairperson yesterday. Included there but not dwelt upon in any detail, was the puzzling case of a letter of clarification received from UGC by JNU on 27 February 2017. We had wished to discuss this in person with the UGC officials, but since JNUTA was not allowed to meet any official of the UGC yesterday, we are now forced to ask publicly for a clarification from UGC and/or JNU whether this is indeed a clarification sent by the UGC in reply to JNU’s request for clarification. This letter, and the eccentricities marked out below, was also placed on record before the Delhi High Court, where JNU at least could offer no explanation as to why these occurred. We request friends in the media to investigate, given that UGC letters have in the recent past turned out to be ‘forgeries’. 

This clarification from the UGC came in response to a letter that the JNU Vice-Chancellor wrote on 29 December, in which intake was never mentioned.

It should be noted that the UGC letter of February does not reply to the specific points asked for in the VC’s letter, but just dictates a chapter and verse implementation of the Regulations.

Did the UGC change its tune? On 11 February, what has now ‘Cinderella-esquely’ become the preferred time for university official announcements on admissions — midnight, the University had circulated to JNU faculty the following announcement regarding admissions”? , which it termed as a “clarification from UGC”:

The JNUTA had on 13 February written to the UGC asking for a clarification whether the said Admission Policy had indeed been clarified by the UGC, but received no reply.

Did the JNU administration lie when it stated to JNU faculty that it had received clearance from the UGC for applying deprivation points and a 20% viva voce? Or did the UGC give a go ahead clarifications and then change these positions? Will the UGC and JNU come clean, as only this can put an end to this recursion of clarifications about clarifications. Until they do, JNUTA shall not stop asking the questions, as we would not like to believe that fabrication and falsification holds sway in the JNU administration and the UGC. We appeal to the press, the public, and Parliamentarians to take up this issue. 

Sd/=

Ayesha Kidwai                                     Pradeep Shinde

President                                               Secretary