Overview
- The School of Social Sciences withdrew the SSS-I auditorium booking on Sunday, citing a notice that organisers did not disclose the “full facts” about the August 10 programme.
- Documents show the venue form named Dr Avinash Kumar as faculty sponsor and was countersigned by the Dean on August 7 before the joint registrar cancelled the booking on August 9.
- The event was organised by the JNU Students’ Union to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and to discuss Fractured Communities, a book based on Umar Khalid’s JNU PhD thesis.
- JNUSU says the discussion will go ahead at an alternate venue and criticised the cancellation as arbitrary, while a BJP spokesperson defended the administration’s right to demand fuller disclosure.
- The dispute highlights ongoing campus tensions over event permissions, the handling of programmes linked to a jailed activist, and possible ripple effects for how JNU balances security, procedure and academic discussion.