Security heightened outside the Jamia Millia Islamia campus.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) on Saturday denied “any role in pasting posters” displaying photographs and personal details of protesting students across the campus walls and blamed “antisocial elements” for the “name-and-shame act”. The university said all the posters have been removed. A committee has been constituted to investigate the matter, it added.

“These individuals [anti-social elements] have nothing to do with the JMI and have made public the photos and details of suspended students on the university’s walls and gates. The university removed these photos from the walls immediately after receiving the information. The JMI strongly condemns such brazen and irresponsible acts,” the university said in a statement.

“The university has constituted a committee to investigate the matter, determine the facts and identify the miscreants, individuals or organisations involved and will take appropriate action against them,” it added.

On Friday, the JMI received a backlash from various student organisations after posters carrying the photographs, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and other personal details of the 17 students who had allegedly protested against the university administration surfaced on campus walls.

Several students even turned to social media to express their anguish and fear of safety.

It came a day after 14 JMI students were detained by the Delhi police for “vandalising public property”. However, the students refuted the charges and called it an act to “suppress their protest”.

The students were protesting against the university’s order of banning protests and meetings without obtaining prior permission from the authorities and the suspension of four PhD scholars for holding a demonstration on December 15, 2024, the fifth anniversary of clashes between the anti-CAA protesters and police on the JMI campus.

According to the university, the students did not obtain prior permission for last year’s protest.

Class boycott call

Meanwhile, the Left-affiliated student organisation – All India Students’ Association (AISA) – gave a call for a boycott of classes on February 17 over suspension of students by the university “for holding a protest”.

The student wing of Congress, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), wrote to JMI Vice Chancellor Prof. Mazhar Asif to rescind the suspension notices.

Though the official statement from the JMI mentioned that 17 students have been suspended, the university did not clarify their suspension when The Hindu tried to reach out.

AISA said 11 departments of the JMI had already called for the boycott of classes and appealed to others to do the same. The NSUI underscored that universities are meant to be spaces for free thought, democratic expression, and constructive dissent.