Romila row: Teachers want JNU to apologise

New Delhi : The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association on Tuesday accused the varsity administration of spreading "blatant falsehood" on its letter to historian Romila Thapar asking her to submit her CV and demanded that it immediately retract such letters sent to 12 professors emeriti, besides tendering personal apology.

The JNU administration's decision to ask historian Romila Thapar to submit her CV for assessment for her continuation as professor emerita had drawn sharp criticism from various quarters with JNUTA terming it "politically motivated", following which the JNU registrar on Monday said that there are 11 others who have also been asked to submit their CVs.

The university had said it was done with the objective of ascertaining Thapar's "availability" and "willingness" to continue her "association with the University" and not to assess her for continuation.

The JNUTA on Tuesday released the letter sent by the varsity to Thapar, saying it was doing so to counter "such blatant falsehood". It noted that the subject line of the "offensive letter" read, 'Assessment of Past Work of Professor Emeritus in Jawaharlal Nehru University for the committee to decide on continuation'.

This "is all the evidence needed to expose the true intentions of the JNU administration", the JNUTA said in a letter "The JNUTA finds it laughable that the current JNU administration thinks that confessing to an insult on a larger scale counts as a defence.