BHOPAL
:
Makhanlal Chaturvedi
University of Journalism on Tuesday rusticated 23 students on charges of “gross misconduct and gross indiscipline” for the vandalism of December 12 in protest against alleged casteist tweets by two adjunct professors.
The university’s disciplinary committee recommended expulsion after which registrar Deependra Baghel issued the order on Tuesday, stating: “These students stand expelled and will not be eligible to attend classes in the university or appear in any theory or practical examination till further orders.”
Last Thursday, a section of students had staged a dharna in front of the vice-chancellor’s cabin (he wasn’t in Bhopal then) to protest against alleged “casteist” remarks by two faculty members on contract. Students demanded that the two teachers be removed. Some of the protesters smashed glass panes on campus.
Students sat on dharna the next day, too, when V-C
Deepak Tiwari
returned. Some indulged in vandalism yet again. The V-C called police to disperse the protesters and some people from both sides got injured in the scuffle that followed. An FIR was lodged against 10 students. “Thirteen more names will be added to the FIR now,” said the registrar on Tuesday.
Asked if rustication was too tough a punishment, Baghel said: “After watching the CCTV footage and discussing the issue, the disciplinary committee came to the conclusion that it was gross indiscipline and misconduct by the students, and exemplary action must be taken to ensure that there is no repeat in the future. This is why they have been expelled.”
One of the rusticated students, Rajnish Tiwari, said: “We have just received information of the expulsion. We will discuss our next step, but whatever we do will be peaceful and lawful. We are sad that we have been punished in place of those two teachers. The teachers were dividing students on caste lines, making ‘casteist’ remarks, but they were spared.”
The other rusticated students are Saurabh Kumar, Prakharaditya Dwivedi, Raghvendra Singh, Ashutosh Bhargava, Abhilash Takur, Arpit Sharma, Ravi Bhushan Singh, Ankit Sharma, Arpit Dubey, Surendra Chaudhary, Vivek Updhyay, Shubham Dwivedi, Ankit Kumar Chaube, Akash Shukla, Anup Sharma, Pratik Vajpayee, Vipin Tiwari, Rahul Kumar, Ravi Sharma, Monica Dubey, Nitish Singh and Vidhi Singh.
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