Taking cognizance of a complaint made by a minority faculty member, the Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) has asked the registrar of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) not to stop her salary payment, nor evict her from her quarters.
Rosina Nasir, assistant professor at the university's Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP), accused vice-chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar and chairperson of CSSEIP Yagati Chinna Rao of "targeted harassment, exploitation, and discrimination" because of her minority (Muslim) identity.
In her complaint to the DMC, the 40-year-old teacher claimed that the university administration has been harassing her with non-payment of salary and giving her eviction notice from the quarters, that was part of a hostel and given to designated wardens.
"It seems to me if I will not quit the faculty position in the CSSEIP, I will be made to disappear like Najeeb (JNU student who disappeared three years ago and still untraceable)," said Nasire, who is a tenured faculty member at CSSEIP under the UGC's grant-in-aid scheme. Her salary was never stopped since her joining in 2013 but in 2017, despite UGC providing extension for two more years, she alleged that her salary was stopped. Her colleague Kaustav Banerjee "resigned under duress" last year after non-payment of salary for 10 months and moved to another university, she said.
Section 9 (i) of the UGC guidelines for such faculty is the resposnsibility of the university even if the UGC stops financial assistance. But the JNU administration has a different version. "She is in the university as part of a planned project by UGC and is not a permanent employee. Her salary is issued by the UGC and not by the varsity. The UGC had not released the salary but now they have released it and she has been paid," stated a university official.
She further alleged that she was not allowed to supervise MPhil and PhD students or teach in the classroom. "I was denied the key to access the class-cum-committee room by the Centre Chairperson Prof. Chinna Rao, services like telephone, official internet connection, official email id, and my webpage profile were declined and blocked. I was not allowed to teach students and students were discouraged to get enrolled in my offered course. It is humiliating," she said.
Driven to wall, the complainant has alleged that she is being driven to suicide because of this "isolation, exclusion, and creation of an unfamiliar and hostile environment".
The DMC has issued a notice to the registrar to file a reply by August 1, 2019 failing which a case will be registered against the VC and the chairperson of CSSEIP. He has asked the station house officer of the Vasant Kunj police station not to provide any police support to evict her from her quarters in JNU.
