New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has suspended 21 security personnel, including six senior supervisors, for up to seven days for failing to stop rusticated JNUSU office-bearers, barred from the campus for a year, from erecting an encampment on a campus lawn during the recent weeks-long class lockdown.The encampment had become the site of a prolonged student sit-in against the vice chancellor’s alleged casteist remarks, where protesters had organised open classes and gatherings attended by academics from other universities while regular classes on the campus remained disrupted.The JNU administration told TOI that the disciplinary action was ordered for “administrative reasons” as the suspended personnel had failed to discharge their duties during the protest period. Officials said several outsiders had managed to enter the campus and unknown vehicles without valid stickers were found parked near administrative buildings, raising security concerns. A suspended supervisor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the staff were verbally informed about the decision without any formal written communication. “We were told that we had failed to stop protesting students from putting up the camp. The in-charge called 21 of us, including supervisors and guards, and said there was an order from the director of security to suspend us,” the supervisor said, adding that all of them are contractual employees.Prof Arun Sidram Kharat, director of the security department at JNU, said the action was taken for administrative reasons. “Some of the staff have been suspended for seven days. The decision was taken based on reports of lapses during the protest period,” he said.JNU Students Union condemned the suspensions and demanded that the guards be reinstated immediately. Terming the move “arbitrary and unjust”, it stated on Thursday, “Instead of addressing the concerns raised by students, the administration has chosen to punish guards who themselves work under precarious contractual conditions.” They “have now become victims of intimidation and administrative high-handedness”, it alleged.
