New Delhi, Nov 1 (PTI) Outgoing Jamia Millia Islamia vice-chancellor Najma Akhtar on Wednesday said that she stood by students against the police action on campus during the anti-CAA protests and ensured they get justice.

In an interview with PTI, Akhtar, whose tenure as vice-chancellor (VC) is slated to end next week, said that she had written to the Centre seeking its intervention in the matter and had demanded that police not enter the campus without the university administration's consent.

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She was appointed to the post in April 2019, the same year which saw protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in December.

"Do you think a vice-chancellor has any other option but to support its students? If you don't support them, who else will you support then?" said Akhtar, who holds the distinction of being the first woman vice-chancellor of the university and probably also the first VC of any central university in the country.

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"I was very much on the side of my students. If they were beaten up in a wrong way by police, I was against that. But we didn't stage a demonstration or make hue and cry about it. I wrote to my (education) ministry, saying you have to see that my students get justice and no further entering of police happens inside the campus without our permission," the Padma Shri recipient said.

Jamia Millia Islamia had become the epicentre of anti-CAA protests after police barged into the campus and allegedly attacked students studying inside the library on December 15, 2019.

Police had said they entered the campus to look for outsiders involved in the violence during the protests, a few metres away from the university.

Akhtar said that "such a thing should not have happened at that time". "I or my Proctor would have gone with the students (to the ministry), if they had asked," she said.

Asked if the university took any steps to prevent such an incident, the VC said, "These are unusual things. So, if unusual things come, we have to be ready with unusual solutions."

On how the university coped during the COVID-19 pandemic, Akhtar said she managed to keep students safe and ensured that they reach their homes safely without catching the virus.

"As a vice-chancellor taking care of 25,000 students was a difficult task. But we managed to keep students who were in hostels safe and got them vaccinated," she said.

The university had hired buses with help from the Centre to take students back to their homes, Akhtar added.

"When things cleared up a little bit, we hired buses to send students to their homes with our own food and security, even up to Kashmir and Bihar. This was done safely with the support from the government. We are very proud of this successful operation," the VC said. PTI SJJ

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)