JNU: A fallen varsity

by Manish Anand

Last week the Delhi police recovered five magazine of cartridges wrapped up in cloth from the bushes in the backyard of the Jawaharlal Nehru University camous in New Delhi. The recovery is intriguing as well as disturbing.

JNU has been a den of Leftist students who take on the romanticism of the Left ideology and engage in its political activities all throughout the year. Students have told the author that in the recent time the campus is seeing lots of naxalite activities too. Its apart from the various north-east rebel groups making the campus hunting ground for their causes among the students.Very recently, Issac Muivah, the NSC(IM) leader, basked in the glory of red-carpet welcome that the Naga forum in the campus gave to him. He addressed a receptive audience as well.

The campus is proving to be the safe place for the naxalite leaders who remain most of the time anonymous. Students have seen the naxalite literature in the capus apart from the videos supporting the nxalite causes. The capus well soaked into the old fashioned left ideology as per information is turning into a recruitment centre for the naxal leaders as well as rebel groups of the northeast India.Much worse is the sheer wastage of the taxpayers' money as the University has failed to make any meaningful contribution to India's socio-economic development. In the name of research activities the University has helped in letting a florishing business of cyber cafes and photostate shopsnear its capus with students downloading information from the net and xeroxing for their thesis.

And what these students do all throughout years ?Preparing for Civil Services Examinations or making their political career are what the students engage in. So much so one of the library is known as Dholpur House after the name of the Union Public Services building with few knowing the real name of the library.One student in conversation with the author told that he was doing research on the Cyberian river sysytem for the last five years and all these years has been getting a scholarship of more than Rs 9,000. The governmet has spent more than Rs five lakh on this researcher and what he has been engaged in al these years; preparing for an elusive IAS job.

Another student told that he has been in the capus for the last seven years and now he is too aged for a job and at best he can expect an NGO work. NGO job is what the student yearn for after wasting their prime time in redundant activities.Many of the facult members too are on the board of various NGOs and at best these faculties have taken the garb of experts writing articles on national and international issues for various newspapers. Great intellectual satisfaction for these intellectually stimulated faculty members a the cost of taxpayers' money.

Can the JNU administration come out with a white paper telling the nation what authentic research work the University has done in the last one decade and wha contribution the University has made to India's socio-economic development or in furthering India's understanding of international scenarios orhelping the Indian foreign policy makers with planning India's foreign policy.

JNU is at best has become a drain on India's national taxpeyers' money which could otherwise be spent on some real developmental activities.