By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The 17 students of Mass Communication Research Center, (MCRC), Jamia Millia Islamia have called off their hunger strike this afternoon after the Jamia Teachers Association (JTA) assured them of taking up their cases with the vice chancellor Najeeb Jung and doing everything possible to safeguard their academic interests.
Rizwan Qaisar, president of JTA along with its general secretary and other JTA office bearers expressed their deep sympathies with the cause of the striking students and persuaded them to call off their strike.
Jamia students on a hunger strike protesting against the denial of medical relaxation of 15% attendance
Unofficially at least the JTA has assured the striking students that it will make sure that the students get to sit in the exams next year. They will also try to persuade the university authorities to exempt the students from attending classes next year. Although there was also a note of caution in the JTA’s stand saying that it can’t do anything which is against the ordinance of the University.
17 students of MCRC had been sitting on hunger strike since Saturday protesting against the denial of 15% of medical relaxation in the mandatory attendance of 75% to them by the university officials. The students claim to have submitted genuine medical certificates which the university in turn rejected regarding them as “fake and forged.”
Talking to TwoCircles.net, Saba, one of the final year students of MCRC on strike, said that, “the representatives of the JTA met us and they assured us that they will take up our case with the university authorities and will try to get us the maximum possible.”
The students will very soon fix up an official meeting with the JTA to discuss the details of their demands with the university.
The hunger strike of the students and its media coverage had put immense pressure on VC Jung to call the students for talks. Jung, who is popular for his autocratic style of functioning, though met the students but refused to allow them to sit in the examinations, saying that “I can’t do any thing as Delhi High Court dismissed your petition and any thing that I do will be a contempt of court.”