Under Modi govt, JNU’s academic expenditure nearly halved

The prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has seen its academic spend nearly halved since the Modi government came to power, according to data from the university’s annual accounts.

The overall expenditure on academic activities, including teaching aids, exams, convocations and students' welfare, has dropped significantly from Rs 37.34 crore in 2014–15 to Rs 20.30 crore in 2023–24, reports the Telegraph.

The first Modi government assumed office in May 2014.

This decline in funding affects crucial areas, such as fieldwork for research scholars, scholarship support, the purchase of academic journals, laboratory operations and the organisation of seminars. All of these have seen significant cuts, the JNU community complains.

Some would call these reductions a systematic "devastation" of higher education through the Centre’s adverse financial policies for JNU.

It is also worth mentioning here that the outlay for JNU’s several merit-cum-means scholarships, intended to support financially disadvantaged undergraduate and postgraduate students, has remained stagnant at Rs 2,000 per month for nearly a decade.

A non-NET fellowship of Rs 8,000 per month given to PhD students also remains stagnant at a level quite insufficient to the rising cost of living and academic expenses in the national capital.

Amidst these financial constraints, vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit recently announced plans to redevelop two prime university properties — the Gomti Guest House and the City Centre — in collaboration with private entities to generate additional resources.

Furthermore, Pandit indicated plans to seek rent from the 12 government institutions that currently operate rent-free offices on JNU’s main campus.

Meanwhile, in what some consider more evidence of the stepmotherly treatment being meted out to scholars at possibly India's premier state university, an RTI inquiry in July revealed that JNU has seen a notable rise in FIRs filed against its students.

Of course, dissenters may argue this reflects more on the youth than the administration — except that since 2016, 35 FIRs have been filed by the JNU administration itself against its own students, the highest number recorded in the university’s history.

Were the youth of previous decades particularly genteel and law-abiding, or is the current administration more likely to be impatient with students and have an overly strict stance on discipline? We'll leave the gentle reader to decide that question.