THE Delhi state committee of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the barbaric police action against the students of JNU on November 18, during their Parliament march. In this police action many students have sustained serious injuries and women students have been assaulted by male constables.

Malicious campaign of misinformation has been carried out by the university administration, as well as BJP-RSS on the issue on which students of JNU have been agitating for last three weeks. What is the truth? Students used to pay around Rs 3,000 per month including the room rent (Rs 10 per month for double seater and Rs 20 per month for single seater) and the mess charges. As per the new rules, students will have to pay the electricity and water charges, as well as the wages of karmacharis as their hostel fees. This will increase the hostel fees from Rs 3,000 per month to Rs 6,000 per month. Apart from this there is a provision of 10 per cent annual increase in the hostel fees. As per JNU administration’s own report, the annual family income of more than 40 per cent of JNU students is less than Rs 1,44,000 per annum and the meaning of this fee hike will directly lead to exclusion of such students.

It is important to understand that the fee hike in JNU is directly linked to RSS-BJP’s draft New National Education Policy, which has provision of replacing the grants to colleges and universities with loan-based-allocation. Loan based allocation means that institutions will have to resort to fee hikes. It’s not a matter isolated to JNU, IITs and Ayurvedic colleges in Uttrakhand have also seen hefty fee hikes. Such fee hikes will make it impossible for the students from working class and poor families to attain higher education.

The JNU vice chanellor has been acting on the directions of RSS-BJP. Instead of solving the legitimate concerns raised by students he has used every kind of threat and intimidation and has reduced the campus to a police cantonment. The sustained pressure of the student movement has forced the MHRD to form a 3-member committee to end the deadlock in the university.