JNU accuses some students of forcibly entering library with personal books
New Delhi, Dec 13: The Jawaharlal Nehru University accused some students of forcibly entering the library with personal books, which, according to the varsity, is against the rules, even as the students' union maintained that they peacefully reclaimed the library.
The Jawaharlal Nehru Students' Union had protested on Wednesday against the library fund cuts and closing of one of the reading halls of the library.
The executive council meeting was held on November 20 and it took a decision to temporarily close one reading room in Dr BR Ambedkar Central Library in view of the potential safety and security hazards, JNU registrar Pramod Kumar said.
"This decision was taken on the basis of the information that this room has only one door for entry and exit which is very narrow and no more than one person can enter/exit at a time.
"When this room was temporarily closed due to safety concerns to the library users, some students began a misinformation campaign stating that the university has withdrawn reading room facility to the students which is a blatant lie," he said.
Another "canard" that has been in circulation is that the JNU Library budget has been drastically cut by the administration, but no decision has been taken to curtail the annual budget of the library, he added.
"Some students in the afternoon of December 13, manhandled the security personnel at the library gate and forcibly entered the library with personal books. This is not only violation of rules, but also this incident may have led to loss/damage of library property," Kumar alleged.
Manhandling of security guards who were diligently performing their duties is highly condemnable, he said, adding an inquiry will be constituted and appropriate action will be taken against such students as per university rules.
"Closing of one room is only a temporary measure and all other facilities, including the reading rooms, are available for the use of JNU students and research scholars. The JNU administration has taken the step keeping in mind the utmost need to provide safety and security to the library users," he added.
Meanwhile, the JNUSU alleged that the JNU Security placed guards in numbers to stop students wanting to read and take their personal books in library hall.
"JNUSU along with JNU students requested security not to hamper aspirations of students to learn and study as JNU like universities are for everyone to read. JNUSU likes to salute the spirit of each and every student who peacefully reclaimed the library from this fascist ideology and read the book, 'The Resistible Rise of Adolf Hitler: A View from Modi's India', by Arindam Sen in central hall of B R Ambedkar," the JNUSU added.
JNUSU condemned the administration's "lies" and demanded that the vice-chancellor to come clean on library finances and why the JNU administration is afraid to allow personal books inside library which were allowed previously, they said.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
