Citizens’ call to save public education

Statement against attack on JNU and in support of public funding of education

We, the undersigned, are shocked at the police brutality and unleashing of paramilitary forces on peacefully protesting students of JNU on 18 November 2019. The substantial hike in hostel fee is a genuine worry for the students of a residential university. It is appalling that these concerns have been answered by brute force on students, teachers and the press.

JNU has nurtured excellence and offered leadership in various fields precisely because it provides a space in higher education to bright minds, irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds. Fees is not the only way students contribute to a university and its character. The unique cultural-educational space of JNU has been created by the diversity of its students, who, since its inception, have contributed to the making of it. The overriding of the concerns of students and teachers by administrative authoritarianism smacks of an agenda of cultural destruction of university spaces. Fee hikes, along with models of self-financed and loan-based education, restrict the world of ideas to a coterie who can pay and repay. They change educational spaces into commercial centers and eventually impoverishe cultural, intellectual and academic life. We are concerned at emerging privatisation policies and trends that point towards a dismal future for public funded education. We express solidarity with the students, teachers and other sections struggling to keep education accessible to all, and find public funding of education a well deserved investment of tax payers’ money.

The injuries caused to protesting JNU students is a testimony to the assault on public funded education. We strongly condemn the curbing of dissent by the university administration, the deployment of police and paramilitary forces in and around university campuses, the brutal assault on the protestors and the extreme high handedness with which the government is attacking higher education and opening it up for privatisation.

We demand,
1. The concerns of all university stakeholders must be taken into account by the administration.
2. Action must be taken against the police personnel who were involved in attacking peaceful protestors, which included a visually challenged student who was beaten and stomped on.
3. There must be an end to the maligning of JNU and its students by an ill informed section of the media who are aligning with politically motivated campaigns for destroying public universities.
4. The government must ensure the cultural health of the future by discontinuing privatisation policies. It must, instead, spend public funds on education to make it accessible and affordable to all.

Read the statement in Hindi here.

1	Cinema of Resistance	113	Gourinath	225	Rahman Abbas
2	Dalit Lekhak Sangh	114	Govind Ram	226	Rahul Sharma
3	Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association (IPTA)	115	Gun Nidhi Dalmia	227	Rajendra Chenni
4	Jan Sanskriti Manch	116	Gurpreet Sidhu	228	Rajendra Prasad Singh
5	Janvadi Lekhak Sangh	117	Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar	229	Rajendra Sharma
6	New Socialist Initiative	118	Harbans Mukhia	230	Rajesh Joshi
7	Progressive Writers Association	119	Hariramamurthi G	231	Rajiv Gupta
8	Samudaya Karnataka	120	Harish Puri	232	Rajiv Velicheti
9	The Community Library Project	121	Hiralal Rajasthani	233	Rajneesh Sahil
10	Indian Writers Forum	122	Hiren Gandhi	234	Rakesh
11	A Mangai	123	Honey Oberoi Vahali	235	Ram Sharan Joshi
12	Abhai Maurya	124	HV Ananthasubba Rao	236	Ramchandra PN
13	Abhay Kumar	125	Indu Tiwari	237	Ramesh kumar
14	Abinash Kumar Behera	126	Irshad khan	238	Ramesh Kumar
15	AI Khan	127	Jaleshwar Upadhyay	239	Ramnagar sinh parihar
16	Ajayan Adat	128	Javed Anis	240	Ramprakash Kushwaha
17	Ajitha G S	129	Jawarimal Parakh	241	Ramsharan Joshi
18	Ajmer Singh	130	Jayant Pawar	242	Ranjit Hoskote
19	AK Arun	131	Jayati Ghosh	243	Rashmitha Juvvadi
20	Akash Kharote	132	Jeroo Mulla	244	Ravi Kant
21	Akeel Bilgrami	133	Joseph Mathai	245	Rekha Awasthi
22	Ali Javed	134	Jyothi A	246	Ritwik Banerjee
23	Alka Sehgal	135	Jyotirmaya Sharma	247	Rohan Ignatious D’Souza
24	Amarjeet	136	K S Parthasarathy	248	Ruchi Chaturvedi
25	Amarjit Chandan	137	K Satchidanandan	249	Rukmini Nair
26	Amarnath	138	Kailash Chand Chauhan	250	S Chatterjee
27	Amitabh Mishra	139	Kalpana Dhaku Malaye	251	S Krishnaswamy
28	Amitabh S Rai	140	Kalpana Kannabiran	252	S Raghunandana
29	Ammu Joseph	141	Kalyani Chaudhuri	253	Saleem Peeradina
30	Amrit kumar	142	Kamala Mukunda	254	Salim Yusufji
31	Anand K Sahay	143	Kamayani Swami	255	Samdarshi Barthwal
32	Anand Teltumbde	144	Kamlnand Jha	256	Sameera
33	Ananya Vajpeyi	145	Kavery Nambisan	257	Sandeep meel
34	Ania Loomba	146	Kavita Krishnan	258	Sanjay Bhartiya
35	Anil Kumar Singh	147	Keki Daruwalla	259	Sanjay Joshi
36	Anirban Sarkar	148	Kirtana Kumar	260	Sanjay Kumar Misra
37	Aniruddha Sen Gupta	149	KK Pandey	261	Sanjeev Kumar
38	Anjali Monteiro	150	KK Vats	262	Sanjukta Wagh
39	Anne Mary Shaju	151	KM Srinivasa Gowda	263	Santanu Mandal
40	Anupam Singh	152	KP Fabian	264	Sara Rai
41	Anuradha De	153	KP Jayasankar	265	Sarandha Jain
42	Anuradha Lobo	154	KP Sasi	266	Saroop Dhruv
43	Ànvita Abbi	155	Kuldeep Kumar	267	Sarwat Ali
44	AP Muraleedharan	156	Kumar Prashant	268	Satish Chand Abbi
45	Apurba K Baruah	157	Kumar Virendra	269	Satyendra Kumar
46	Arijit Sen	158	Lalit Vachani	270	Shabnam Hashmi
47	Arjumand Ara	159	Lalita Ramdas	271	Shah Alam Khan
48	Arun Kumar	160	Laltu	272	Shaila Wagh
49	Arun Yadav	161	Laxminarayan Ramdas	273	Shalini
50	Arvind Das	162	Lima Kanungo	274	Shalini Advani
51	Asha Desai	163	M Aslam	275	Sham Shimpi
52	Asha Mishra	164	M Hadi Rahbar	276	Shambhu Yadav
53	Ashok Bhowmick	165	Maansi Shah	277	Shambhunath Shukla
54	Ashok Kumar Pandey	166	Madhavi Menon	278	Shamya Dasgupta
55	Ashutosh Kumar	167	Madhu Bhaduri	279	Shashikant Pandey
56	Asif Jamal	168	Madhu Bhaduri	280	Shekhar Mallik
57	Atamjit Singh	169	Mahendra	281	Shivani Chopra
58	Atish Indrekar Chhara	170	Mahendra Nath Mishra	282	Shivarama Padikkal
59	Avalokita	171	Mahesh Koltame	283	Shoaib M
60	Avinash Kunar	172	Mamta Kalia	284	Shoma Chatterji
61	Avinash Mishra	173	Manas Ghosh	285	Showket Mandloo
62	Ayushya Kaul	174	Mangalesh Dabral	286	Shruti Tambe
63	Aziz Minat	175	Manisha Chaudhry	287	Sitanath Lahkar
64	B Ekbal	176	Manishi Jani	288	Sonam Kumari
65	Badri Raina	177	Manoj Kulkarni	289	Souradeep Roy
66	Bajrang Bihari	178	Manorama Sharma	290	Srilata
67	Batul Mukhtiar	179	Mansi Bhatt	291	Srinivas Kakkilaya
68	Bharat Singh	180	Meena Gupta	292	Subha Das Mollick
69	Bharat Tiwari	181	Megha Pansare	293	Subhash Gatade
70	Bhasha Singh	182	Mercy Margaret	294	Subhasis
71	Brijesh Chauhan	183	Mohan Rao	295	Sudhanva Deshpande
72	Brijesh Kumar Yadav	184	Mridula Garg	296	Sudheer Gupta
73	C N Subramaniam	185	Mridula Koshy	297	Sudhir Suman
74	C Ramakrishnan	186	Mukul Sharma	298	Sujata
75	Chaman Lal	187	Mundoli Narayanan	299	Sujata Patel
76	Chanchal Chauhan	188	Murli Manohar Prasad Singh	300	Sukhwinder
77	Chandrakant Patil	189	MZ Khan	301	Sumanta Banerjee
78	Charu Sharma	190	N Manu Chakravarthy	302	Sumita
79	Civic Chandran	191	Namrata	303	Sunanda
80	D N Jha	192	Narasimha D Reddy	304	Sunil Kumar
81	Dakxin Chhara	193	Narbhinder	305	Susan Philip
82	Damodar Mauzo	194	Nataraj Honnavalli	306	Sushi Kadanakuppe
83	Debanjana Das	195	Navnath Sampat Choramale	307	Sushma Pandey
84	Debjani Bhattacharyya	196	Nayantara Sahgal	308	Sushma Varma
85	Debjani Sengupta	197	Neelam Jeena	309	Suvir Kaul
86	Deepak Kumar	198	Neelam Shankar	310	Svati Joshi
87	Deepika Papneja	199	Neelesh Raghuwanshi	311	Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
88	Dev Desai	200	Nikhat Riyaz	312	Syied Farhan Alam
89	Devaki Khanna	201	Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay	313	T P Sreesankar
90	Devashish Makhija	202	Nisha Biswas	314	Tanmayee Roy
91	Devraj	203	NP Hafiz Mohamad	315	Tarlok Bandhu
92	Dimple Oberoi Vahali	204	Padma Velaskar	316	Ullatil Achu
93	Dunu Roy	205	Pankaj Bisht	317	Umesh Chandola
94	Durga Prasad Singh	206	Pankaj Bisht	318	Upasana Behar
95	Farhat Rizvi	207	Pankaj Chaturvedi	319	V Alan Bosco
96	Farida Khan	208	Paresh Jayashree Manohar	320	Vaasanthi
97	Fathima Nizaruddin	209	Pariplab Chakraborty	321	Vasudev
98	Fazal Imam Mallick	210	Parvathi Menon	322	Vidyut
99	Firoz Alam	211	Ponniah Rajamanickam	323	Vijaya Venkataraman
100	Firoz Ashraf Khan	212	Poonam Batra	324	Vikas Maniar
101	G Ramakrishna	213	Poonam Tushamad	325	Vimala KS
102	Gajendra Narayan Sharma	214	Prashant kumar	326	Vineet Tiwari
103	Gauhar Raza	215	Pratishtha Pandya	327	Vineetabh
104	Geeta Kapur	216	Praveen Kumar Jha	328	Vinyasa Hegade
105	Geeta Sethi	217	Praveer Peter	329	Vir Bharat Talwar
106	Giitanjali	218	Pravin Kumar	330	Vishnu Nagar
107	Girdhar Rathi	219	Purushothama Bilimale	331	Vishnu Prabhakar
108	Girija Pathak	220	Purushottam Agrawal	332	Yogesh kumar
109	Githa Hariharan	221	Radhan K	333	Yousuf Saeed
110	Gopal Goyal	222	Radhavallabh Tripathi	334	Zasha Colah
111	Gopal Nath	223	Radhika
112	Gopalji Pradhan	224	Radhika Menon