The JNU students’ union on Thursday told Narendra Modi that the vice-chancellor chosen by his government had damaged the institution’s pro-poor and liberal character, voicing grievances that underlined the students’ rejection of the ideology the Prime Minister represents.

Office-bearers of the Left-dominated students’ union aired the charges in an open letter issued just before Modi unveiled a Swami Vivekananda statue on the campus.

Apart from listing alleged wrongdoings by vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar since his appointment in January 2016, the letter highlighted the targeting of JNU students by the political establishment and questioned the Modi government’s record in higher education.

It said the students had little hope of redress but wrote the letter anyway because they wanted to protest every act “detrimental to the interest of the university and the country” and because being “Prime Minister requires one to listen to the critics”.

“We note that you always criticise politicians from other political organisations, particularly our first Prime Minister, after whom the university was named. It is, however, ironic that you choose to address that same university — because the record of your party in government on opening new universities has been dismal,” the letter said.

The students stressed how, since its inception in 1970, JNU had striven to facilitate research by women and poor students, and not just by keeping the fees low.

It was till two years ago the only university in the country that, while selecting students for admission, awarded “deprivation points” to them based on their gender and the backwardness of the district they came from.

One of the complaints against the VC the students voiced was that he had abolished this affirmative measure for research programmes in 2018, switching to University Grants Commission-prescribed admission rules.

Then, in late 2019, the VC tried to impose a threefold fee hike, triggering massive protests that culminated in masked men entering the campus “in complicity with the administration and the security company” and attacking students and teachers with iron rods in January 2020.

“However, till date the police ha(ve) failed to apprehend the culprits,” the letter said.

It stressed that JNU had produced some of the finest researchers in the social sciences, humanities and the natural sciences, and taught some of Modi’s ministerial colleagues (such as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar).

Yet, it suggested, the authorities kept targeting it. “Why are students of JNU criminalised and called anti-national while those praising Nathuram Godse find a high place in Parliament?” the letter asked.

It cited how doctored videos were used to bring sedition charges against JNU students for allegedly shouting “anti-national” slogans on campus in February 2016.

In October 2016, student Najeeb Ahmed disappeared after a scuffle with ABVP students but the VC took no action against those accused of assaulting him, the letter said.

Among the students’ other grievances was the university’s discontinuation of subscriptions to a host of journals and its severe funding cut for the library.

“This is a long letter and we are doubtful regarding any agreement from your behalf pertaining to our concerns. But we believe that the Prime Minister of the country requires one to listen to the critics as well,” the letter said.

“You have many a time stated that criticism is like a treasure which you would cherish. Hence, we would like to apprise you of the situation in JNU, caused majorly by the actions of your government and the vice-chancellor who has been placed by it.”

The students argued that Modi’s acceptance of the university’s invite to Thursday’s event signalled his support for the VC’s actions.

“But we shall continue to oppose every act that we feel is detrimental to the interest of the university and the country at large, because we believe that education must not be confined to the privileged few. The poison of hatred only seeks to deny people such rights as accessible education,” the letter said.