NEW DELHI: The Union Human Resources Development Ministry has sought the views from the Ministry of Home Affairs on demands by Jamia Milia Islamia to order a high-level inquiry in December 15 incident.
On December 15, Delhi police had reportedly barged inside the campus without the university administration’s permission and beaten up a large number of students following protests against the new citizenship law.
It has also asked for MHA’s opinion about the administration’s demand to register an FIR against Delhi police. The very next day after the incident, the executive council of the university had passed a resolution in which it had said that a judicial or high-level enquiry should be ordered by the MHRD into the incident.
"We have sent the resolution to MHA and are waiting for its response," said a senior HRD Ministry official. He added that unlike Jawaharlal Nehru University, which is also seeing student unrest given the proposed hike in hostel fee, the issue related to Jamia was "not academic."
"The issue was related to law and order and also the follow-up police action, so we have to ask MHA on how to go ahead with this," he added.
Meanwhile, Jamia Vice-Chancellor Najma Akhtar, facing protests from students on the government inaction so far, met with HRD secretary Amit Khare and other senior officials on Tuesday and reiterated her demands. The administration, led by Akhtar had expressed displeasure particularly at police forces entering the campus library on December 15 and beating up some 200 students there.
Last month, the university had also constituted an internal committee comprising of 20-25 professors to probe the incident from "all possible angles." "This we had done so that we have our response ready when the HRD Ministry constituted panel asks for details from us," a senior Jamia official said. The committee, following the probe, had asked for lodging of a formal complaint against the police personnel.