JNU students angry after hostels raided

An early morning raid — the authorities call it a check — in JNU’s hostel rooms has riled its students, with many maintaining that attempts are being made to malign the university’s scholars, especially its women.

The students have complained that attempts are being made to malign the university’s scholars, especially its women. The students claimed 20-25 security guards led by JNU academic Buddha Singh entered the rooms after 5 am on October 5.

Former JNUSU general secretary Satarupa Chakraborty said that wardens of various hostels entered the rooms, opened cupboards, and imposed spot fines on those found to be breaking hostel rules.

“JNU being a residential campus has always maintained its character and built an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.

But this raid was just the opposite. The wardens didn’t even knock,” said Mr Chakraborty.

“Efforts are on to incite hatred against JNU,” JNUSU general secretary Duggirala Srikrishna said, pointing out that last year there were stories about 3,000 used condoms being found in JNU every day.

“The RSS-BJP regime... has tried to malign JNU through fake stories of condoms, calling women students prostitutes as part of a #ShutDownJNU campaign,” he said.

According to the JNU hostel manual, only men can stay in the men’s hostels and women in the women’s wings. They are required to return to their respective hostels by 11 pm. While the manual prohibits men from entering women’s hostels, it only says that women are not allowed into the dining hall of the men’s hostels.

Wardens from time to time check the IDs of room occupants to see if there are unauthorised guests.

The recent raid has earned the ire of the RSSaffiliated ABVP too. The students’ group condemned the administration for the “highhandedness and moral policing” in the name of hostel checks and the subsequent media reports which it felt “covered the entire incident in a misogynistic and ludicrous manner”.

A students’ group called the Collective condemned the raid. “While the issue of building more hostels on campus remains unresolved, students are being harassed and hostel rooms raided instead,” it said on a social media site.

Residents of Periyar hostel passed a resolution demanding an explanation from the authorities.