The JNU vice-chancellor has floated plans to redevelop two of the university’s prime properties in public-private partnership mode and rent them out to address a funds shortage, drawing protests from students, teachers, a heritage enthusiast and an MP.
VC Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit told The Telegraph that JNU was struggling to meet its increasing expenses despite the education ministry raising its grants over the years.
She plans to redevelop the Gomti Guest House behind the Ficci auditorium at Tansen Marg, and JNU’s centre at 35 Ferozeshah Road, from where the Indian Council of Historical Research now operates. The University Grants Commission, too, has an office there. Neither pays rent to JNU.
Pandit ruled out selling either property. She said the Ferozeshah Road property can be redeveloped into a multistorey building, possibly in the PPP mode, to be rented out as offices. The Gomti Guest House may be given to a private entity to manage while paying a certain sum to JNU.
Both measures are expected to come up before various university bodies, such as the academic council and the executive council, before being sent to the education ministry for approval.
Pandit’s plans come at a time when the JNU students’ union has launched an indefinite hunger strike on the campus with a charter of demands that includes raising the Merit-cum-Means (MCM) Scholarship from ₹2,000 a month to ₹5,000.
Students’ union president Dhananjay, one of the seven students on hunger strike since August 11, said the union was against the privatisation of assets.
He said there was no reason for the Narendra Modi government to reduce funds for higher education while giving away lakhs of crores as subsidy to corporate Houses.
“The mess bill has increased to about ₹4,000 a month. It was agreed earlier that the MCM should take care of the mess bill. But the administration is not listening to the demand,” he said.
In a statement, the students’ union said the Gomti Guest House stands in the building where JNU began its operations with the Indian School of International Studies (ISIS). Visiting professors and delegates are often accommodated in this heritage building.
“This is part of the age-old privatisation game plan, where governments sell assets, not all at once but in bits and pieces. Next, they might put other parts of JNU up for rent for commercial purposes,” the statement said.
“We appeal to the student community to stand against the privatisation of Gomti Guest House and reject this flimsy excuse of a lack of funds. If the government can subsidise lakhs of crores of rupees for the ultra-rich, then it has no right to reduce funds for higher education.”
JNU Teachers’ Association president Moushumi Basu questioned the government’s poor funding of JNU despite the university regularly ranking among the best institutions in the country. “Why should it face a financial crunch?” she said.
CPI Rajya Sabha member Sandosh Kumar P. on Sunday wrote to education minister Dharmendra Pradhan asking the government to provide the funds that JNU needs.
He said the plans to monetise the university’s assets seemed “nothing but an attempt to hand over prime location real estate to private hands at throwaway prices”.
“I urge you to take immediate steps to address the financial crunch being faced by JNU and other central universities. I also demand that JNU be declared an Institute of Eminence and all issues related to infrastructure, promotions and scholarships be considered at the earliest,” he wrote.
City heritage enthusiast Sohail Hashmi told this newspaper that JNU had inherited both the Gomti Guest House and the 35 Ferozeshah Road property from the ISIS, which was merged into the university in 1970.
“The ISIS functioned from Sapru House (the office of the foreign ministry think tank, the Indian Council of World Affairs, on Barakhamba Road). They offered PhD courses in international relations, and the scholars stayed in (the) Gomti Guest House (nearby),” he said.
Hashmi, who studied at JNU from 1972 to 1981, listed former CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, the first president of the JNU students’ union O.P. Shukla, and former JNU professor Pushpesh Pant as former residents of the Gomti Guest House.
Hashmi said that 35 Ferozeshah Road had an auditorium that was demolished several years ago.
“Some ISIS faculty also stayed there.... Scholars preferred to stay in Gomti Guest House so they could use the Sapru House library which had the finest archive of newspaper clippings. There was a bus connecting the ‘JNU City Centre’, as the Ferozeshah Road premises were called, and the new campus (in south Delhi),” he said.
“Instead of saying that ‘We are among the top 3 universities, give us funds’, the JNU administration wants to give away property in the heart of the city. A university isn’t supposed to be doing this.”
Pandit, in a WhatsApp reply to questions from this newspaper, said: “The Ministry of Education totally subsidizes JNU but JNU has little or no receipts of its own. Over the years students, teachers and staff have increased on campus.
“Students in JNU pay fee as low as Rs 10 and Rs 20 till date. The MoE (ministry of education) has increased funds but still we are unable to meet the ever increasing costs related to infrastructure, books, online sources, softwares etc required for research.
“Merit Cum Means (MCM) Scholarship given to JNU students helps scores which is also totally borne by the university. In such a scenario, one has to plan for the future.
“JNU needs to generate its own funds, hence some of these ideas include better ways to run, revamp and reuse JNU properties which can generate regular income for the university.”