Student Struggle Editorial Team
New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) has come out in strong words against the attempts to challenge the provision of 27% reservation for Other Backward Castes (OBC) students in post graduate courses in all central government-run educational institutions, including JNU.
On May 12, the Delhi High Court had asked the Central Government and the JNU administration to file affidavits in the petition regarding the same, filed by advocates Nishant Khatri and Subhash Vijayran, to challenge a memorandum issued by the MHRD in April, 2008, introducing the reservation provision. The petition filed by Khatri through Vijayran states that there is no need for reservation for OBCs in post-graduate courses, as per the Ashok Kumar Thakur v. Union of India, (2008) 6 SCC 1 case of the Supreme Court.
The order can be read and downloaded here.
However, the students’ union, in their official statement has maintained the position that a product of difficult and long struggles waged by the progressive elements of the university, any assault on the university’s reservation rules is an assault on the country’s constitutional values themselves. In the statement, the union also lists a number of struggles and points that indicate towards the need for the aforementioned reservation, contrary to what the petition claims. The students’ body says that it is in contact with legal teams and will fight towards a positive outcome.
We republish the union’s official statement here.
Read the entire statement below:
Resist Attempts to Scuttle Social Justice in JNU
The JNUSU condemns the mischievous attempts by forces of Manuwaadi mentality to use constitutional legal methods to undermine the very spirit of the constitution by challenging the 27% OBC reservation in JNU. The provision of OBC Reservation was achieved after a long and arduous struggle and it is a shame that attempts are still being made to restore upper caste hegemony through such backdoor tactics and denying education to those who have been kept at the margins by the Brahmanical order for centuries.
The litigants – the two lawyers claim that those who complete their graduation have already climbed the social ladder and hence do not need affirmative action at the MA level. This is a simplistic and brazenly twisted understanding which needs to be called out and challenged. While JNU and the Center have been asked to file a reply by the Delhi High Court, we believe that truth shall prevail and no such frivolous petitions shall be entertained any further.
This campus has indeed not forgotten how in 2006, when the Mandal Commission Recommendations were placed for implementation and passed as Central Educational Institutions Act, 2006, the very same casteist forces mobilized to create discord and tried to polarize opinion against social justice. The regressive and reactionary Youth For Equality or the Y4E tried their best to delegitimize social justice and went to the Court against its enactment. These were the same forces which came into the way of JNUSU elections which led in a stay of the election process and a four year wait for the democratic process to be restored
The Central Educational Institutions Act, 2006, could come into force only in 2008 after Supreme Court validated the Act rejecting the moves of the anti-reservation forces. But in JNU, the administration devised cunning methods to scuttle the Act through faulty ‘cut-off’ criterion which would keep OBC seats vacant. In 2007-08, the JNUSU recognised the admin’s casteist ploys and a protracted struggle began for correct implementation of 27% OBC reservation. The JNU student community’s struggle continued for 3 years, culminating in resounding success through two critical cases during 2010-11, first in Delhi High Court and then in the Supreme Court. Both the verdicts validated JNU student community’s interpretation of ‘cut-off’ and rejected the casteist positions of JNU admin and Youth for Equality. The arduous battle led to the correct implementation of OBC reservation not just in JNU, but all over the country.
Similarly, another related battle was won in 2016. When applying in JNU, the OBC candidates were put at par with the unreserved category candidates without any relaxation, in respect of minimum eligibility marks. This was also fought & challenged in 2015-16, in the case of Gautam Sharma Vs JNU and subsequently won over.
The campus has seen and is continuing to see the effects of the 2016 UGC Gazette notification which not only resulted in a seat cut but has seen continuous denial of social justice at the research level. The seat cut was of course challenged in multiple cases such as Shubhanshu Singh and Others Vs. JNU and SFI Vs. Union of India which ultimately did roll back the atrocious provisions of entrance as qualifying, 100% Viva and the denial of relaxation to the reserved category students. This year too, the seats in MPhil-PhD have been reduced and there is virtually no seat for the PwD candidates at research level and revocation of deprivation points to candidates for Mphil, PhD Courses. At this juncture, the attempt by the casteist nexus in which the JNU administration is a party must be exposed. The JNU Community has no certainty that the University will file a reply and defend the constitution in court. Hence all the progressive forces in defense of social justice must unite and fight this together.
The fight to defend social justice also means expanding its ambit, including the implementation of the Nafey Committee report, the filling of vacancies on reserved seats in teaching posts and minority deprivation points. Let us all unite to resist this attack and for a more inclusive model of education that caters to the need of all and not just a privileged few.
The JNUSU is in touch with its legal team and hence will keep a close eye on the court proceedings in the interest of students and social justice.
JNUSU
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