JNUSU slams administration for cancelling discussion on Umar Khalid’s book

The Jawaharlal Nehu College College students’ Union (JNUSU) on Sunday (August 9, 2026) hit out on the JNU administration for cancelling a dialogue on the e book “Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Energy”, written by former scholar Umar Khalid, to be held at SSS-1 auditorium on August 10. Khalid is presently lodged in jail within the 2020 northeast Delhi riots conspiracy case.

The JNUSU in an announcement stated discussing a e book was a basic a part of educational tradition and democratic engagement on any college campus. “By cancelling the venue for this occasion, the JNU administration has as soon as once more uncovered its anti-student and anti-intellectual agenda, one which seeks to suppress important thought and silence dissenting voices reasonably than foster the free alternate of concepts {that a} college is supposed to guard,” the JNUSU stated.

Editorial | Process as punishment: On the Umar Khalid case

Administration’s stand

The administration, in response, stated the JNU was a democratic and decentralised establishment and that permission was given by Dean, SSS who had taken motion as nicely in cancelling the occasion. “The reserving of the auditorium SSS-1 stands cancelled due to non-disclosure of the total info in regards to the programme which goes to happen on August 10 from 3 p.m. to six p.m.,” the college stated.

The JNUSU alleged that it was the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences who himself instructed that the reserving be made in that very format. “This contradiction lays naked the administration’s true intent: to fabricate a pretext for censorship,” the union stated.

The JNUSU additional stated cancelling a room didn’t cancel a dialog and that the programme would happen exterior the venue. “No administrative order can suppress the correct of scholars to suppose, query, and focus on,” the union stated.

The union described the e book as a critical, lengthy educational work on the wrestle of Adivasi resistance and their struggles of Jal, Jungle and Jameen and that cancelling the dialogue on the identical e book uncovered the administration’s anti-Adivasi ideology. The dialogue is to characteristic professors Prabhu Mahapatra and Uma Chakravarti, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, and social activists Harsh Mander and Banojyotsna, in response to the occasion poster.

ABVP takes credit score

Taking credit score for the cancellation of the occasion, the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stated that as quickly because the poster for the occasion surfaced, ABVP JNU prominently raised the difficulty via varied social media platforms and demanded the college administration cancel the occasion instantly. “Following ABVP JNU’s continued protests and efforts, the occasion has been cancelled. ABVP JNU additionally protested in opposition to the executive officers who granted permission for this occasion glorifying the traitor Umar Khalid,” the ABVP stated. ABVP JNU president Mayank Panchal stated, “JNU can’t be a platform for glorifying a traitor accused of great anti-national actions and violence. We spoke out in opposition to this occasion and lodged our clear objection with the administration. The cancellation of the occasion is a victory for the ABVP’s wrestle.”