BeyondHeadlines Staff Reporter
New Delhi: Agitating students of Anwar Jamal Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre (AJKMCRC), Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, called off their six-day old hunger strike today after being persuaded by the teachers association, which promised to make sure their case is heard sympathetically.
The students were sitting on hunger strike against the varsity’s decision to debar them from writing their final examinations on grounds of short attendance. President of Jamia Teachers Association Professor Rais along with Secretary Professor Rizwan Qaiser and Joint Secretary Professor Badshah Alam met the students and assure them that their appeal has been heard and the association will look into the matter and bring out a solution favoring the students.
Prof Qaiser said: “As an association, we look into the matter to ensure their best interest. They may not be able to appear in their examinations this year but whatever best can be done to make sure that they can be able write their exams next year and reduce their financial burdens, we will do that. We are not giving the students any pin pointed assurance but can definitely assure that their case will be looked into with all honesty and in their best possible interest.”
The association further requested the students to put an end to this protest as they did not feel good about seeing their own students sitting on a hunger strike in this testing weather. The students broke their 125-hour-long fast with juices and have been advised by the JMI’s Ansari Health Centre to start by eating small and light meals. The students have called off the strike in the hope that the association shall help them take their dialogue with the vice chancellor on a much more positive level and help them get the justice that was earlier denied.
This six day hunger strike has not been easy on the students with students falling ill, catching infections and allergies and a dramatic brawl with the Bulls (varsity’s private security guards) and police officers of the Jamia Nagar Police Station, where the students were beaten mercilessly and taken into custody without any instigation. The police misbehave with the students, mostly girls, was witnessed when the protesting students tried to put up a bed spread as a shade to cover them in this scorching heat on the second day of the peaceful protest.
It was on the forth and the fifth day that the students met the vice chancellor and started a dialogue. In the second meeting with the students, the vice chancellor gave these students their word on allowing them to finish their final and pending practical assignments this year, but nothing had been decided for the first year students or even for the written examinations of the final year students.
