The students’ body was reacting to the deployment of guards at the entrance to every school and centre at university, which they claimed was a bid to stop their strike on Monday.

JNU has mandated at least 75% attendance for all students, much to the chagrin of a section of students and faculty members. This would be the first time the university has a policy regarding attendance, since its inception, according to students, faculty members and alumni of the university.

The JNUSU and the JNU Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) had called on students and teachers to boycott attendance, as they claimed it to be an attack on the traditions of the university, and an arbitrary and unnecessary move at a predominantly research university.

JNUSU had also declared a strike on campus on Monday. Guards had been deployed at the entrances to the school and centres on Monday, based on orders from the registrar’s office.

“In the past when there have been strikes on the campus, (the ones calling the strike) had tried to physically and forcefully stop students from entering the classes. So we deployed them as a precautionary measure,” said Pramod Kumar, the registrar. He added that no action would be taken against students for the strike, as they “have the right to protest.”

“Action will only be taken against those who try to force others to participate in the strike (by restricting their entry to classes),” he said.

However, the JNUSU called the move an attempt to “intimidate” students, and burned the circulars mandating the attendance and the orders from the registrar’s office in the lawns near the School of International Studies. They also said that they would be gifting a pair of khaki trousers to the V-C for “his unwavering loyalty toward the Sangh.”

Simone Zoya Khan, the vice president of the JNUSU, said that they would give it to the V-C “soon.”

The registrar also said that the strike had “no support” among the student community and that all classes were going on uninterrupted. However, the JNUSU has said that the strike was almost total, with a handful of exceptions.

Students also said that they had not had any classes. A few first-year MA students at the School of International Studies said that almost all the students had turned up to class, but out of solidarity with the strike, they had held the lecture in the open and not in their classrooms, while economics students said that they had had “some classes.” A few students of the School of Arts and Aesthetics said that they had no class at all.