No food for thought: Are we ignoring Kanhaiya Kumar-led JNU hunger strike?

For the last ten days, 14 students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, including JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, have been on a marathon hunger strike to protest against the High Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) report that resulted in unfair fines and grossly unjust rustication of a number of students, particularly Anirban Bhattacharya (who has been rusticated for five years) and Umar Khalid (rusticated for one year) for their participation in the February 9 events.

At a time when the mainstream media had been following Kanhaiya's every move with interest, this complete airbrushing of his hunger strike, along with the fellow students and Phd scholars at JNU, is perplexing to say the least. While Knahaiya had to be admitted to AIIMS for treatment after his health took a nosedive on Thursday, others like Umar Khalid, Anand Kumar, Aqsa, Pankhuri, et al are braving severe physiological agony to continue with their indefinite hunger strike.

The JNU studnets have the following demands:

1. Scrapping of the HLEC and dismissal of its findings, thereby revoking the rustication orders.

2. Fulfillment of the mandated reservation quota at JNU.

3. Ending of continuous victimisation of the students and faculty at JNU.

4. Restoration of deprivation points.

The hunger strikers have found solidarity across the academic and student bodies in different universities, but the administration under the current vice-chancellor Jagadesh Kumar, continues to block their demands.

Most of the students have lost 4-5kg in weight, their bilirubin and sugar levels have drastically dropped, causing major health alarms. But the administration is still not willing to relent, and continues to dismiss the strike as "unconstitutional".