The dust is beginning to settle over the JNU row following the alleged raising of anti-national slogans by a group of students at an event to mark the death of Parliament attack convict Afsal Guru on the campus.
Onmanorama looks at the situation in the premier educational institution and how the polarising political debate over the event had impacted the academic fraternity.
Has the situation really come back to normal?
"Classes have resumed, and the atmosphere inside the institution has returned to near-normalcy," said a professor of the JNU, on condition of anonymity. The teachers' association of the JNU has decided against members talking to the media individually.
For almost a week after allegations that anti-national slogans were raised at the Afsal Guru event, an environment of tension and panic had gripped the campus. Cops entering the campus and arresting students allegedly involved in the incident, the attacks by lawyers on student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, the high-voltage debates on national television all contributed to the atmosphere of fear.
The JNU professor said that students were really tensed during that fateful week in February. But now with the police kept firmly outside the campus, a sense of security has returned to the academic community. Students and staff are slowly limping back to their daily schedules, he said.
"Now that Kanhaiya Kumar is out on bail, there has been a definite change on the mood inside the campus. Classes are being held on and off," said Rukmini Kakoty, a research scholar at JNU.
But it would be wrong to say that students have managed to put behind them the trauma and fear of that February week. They are still very much concerned over the safety of the other students – Umar Khalid, Anirban – who are still behind the bars.
JNU students union activists plan to take out a march Tuesday to Jantar Mantar seeking the release of these students.
Future doesn't look promising
Although there is some respite, many fear the debate on the so-called anti-national activities that played out on national television may cast a shadow on the campus for years to come.
“The general mood is that the freethinking spirit of JNU cannot be caged by these acts. But I fear may be next year, during such discussions, people may not be as forthcoming as how they used to be,” Kakoty said.
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