NEW DELHI: Academics from several countries have called for the “immediate” resignation of JNU vice-chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar. Over 250 senior academics and university administrators from universities in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Norway, France, Italy, Denmark, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Chile, Mexico, Argentina Taiwan, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Brazil, Portugal and New Zealand have signed a statement calling for the immediate resignation of Mamidala.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury and current Master of Magdalen College, Cambridge, Rowan Williams; President of the American Anthropological Association, Professor Akhil Gupta; President, Association for Asian Studies, USA, Prof Prasenjit Duara; and Professors Dame Caroline Humphries and Sir Christopher Clark, Cambridge are among the signatories.
“The signatories note that the incident which took place on January 5th when an armed and politically-motivated mob was allowed to enter JNU campus ‘violates every norm of democracy, of academic freedom, of the protection of universities from arbitrary state power, and of the duty of university administrators to protect their students and faculty’,” the statement said.
“The administration of the University, and especially the V-C have lost all national and international credibility.”