NEW DELHI: Remarks made by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit during a podcast released on February 16, decrying the new UGC regulations as “unnecessary” and “irrational” have drawn the ire of the university’s students’ union.
According to the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), Pandit compared such policies to “a temporary type of drug.”
“You cannot progress by perpetually being a victim or playing the victim card. This was done for the Blacks; the same thing was brought for Dalits here,” she said, according to a JNUSU statement.
Reacting sharply to her remarks, the students’ body has demanded that she step down and called for a nationwide protest. In a statement issued on Friday, the JNUSU said it was “shocked and ashamed” by her “abhorrent” comments.
Describing her statement as “blatantly casteist,” the union said such views reflect a “deep insensitivity towards the history of caste-based exclusion and structural injustice in universities and public institutions.” “This is not merely an individual opinion but a worldview that denies the lived realities of Dalits and other marginalised communities,” the union said, adding that the comments trivialised generations of discrimination.
The student body appealed to student organisations and unions across the country to condemn the statements and announced a “national protest day” February 21.