JNU administration lied about purpose of letter to professor Romila Thapar, claim teachers

NEW DELHI: Releasing the JNU administration’s letter to professor emerita Romila Thapar, Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) claimed on Tuesday that the authority had lied about it.
While the administration had said the letter was issued only to ascertain her “availability and willingness” to continue, its subject line stated “Assessment of Past Work of ‘Professor Emeritus’ in JNU for the Committee to Decide on Continuation”.
Demanding that the letters issued by the registrar to 12 professors emeriti be immediately recalled, JNUTA said any review of their performance should be ended and a personal apology should be tendered to each of them.
According to a JNUTA statement, “In an unsigned statement to the press on September 1, the JNU administration has sought to pass off the offensive letter to Romila Thapar as written with the objective of ascertaining her availability and willingness to continue her association with the university and not one that seeks to assess her for continuation.”
JNUTA also countered the administration’s claim that its action was as per Ordinance 32 of JNU, stating that the rules and regulations had been amended in the 275th meeting of the executive council on August 23, 2018 by the vice-chancellor.
Dismissing the administration’s claim that such practices are prevalent in Princeton and MIT, the association pointed out that neither mentioned “any sort of review at the threshold of 75 years of age”. However, JNUTA continued, it has been heartening to see that at last international best practices in university governance have surfaced as points of reference for the JNU administration.
JNUTA has also asked the administration to study the rules of the top international institutions regarding various issues such as biometric daily attendance for faculty and students and an exclusively online and MCQ entrance format entirely outsourced to an external agency.