New Delhi, Dec. 28: Protesting JNU students today likened varsity authorities with Dronacharya of the Mahabharata, who had demanded as his fee the right thumb of a low-caste archer threatening to outperform the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

A day after ten students belonging to disadvantaged communities were suspended for "indiscipline", the chant for social justice set the tone for the protest. The students had barged into an academic council meeting to protest new admission norms.

Registrar Pramod Kumar said a proctorial committee had been set up to inquire into the matter. The suspended students will depose before it.

This paper had today reported that 15 students were suspended, based on the accounts of students, after calls to the university's proctor, rector and registrar to get a confirmation went unanswered on Tuesday. The proctor today said 10 students had been suspended.

The students gathered in front of JNU's administrative block and raised slogans outside vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar's office today. " Dronacharyas campus chhodo. Bramhanvad ho barbaad (Dronacharyas leave campus. Let Brahmanvad be destroyed)," they chanted.

The academic council of the varsity had on Monday adopted new admission norms prescribed by the UGC under which an institution can give 100 per cent weightage to viva to select students for admission into MPhil and PhD courses. The performance in the entrance test will be used as qualifying marks.

So far, the university has been following a 70:30 weightage system for entrance tests and viva. The marginalised sections have been alleging discrimination in viva.

A committee that analysed admission data for the last few years found evidence of discrimination and recommended reduction of viva weightage to 15 per cent. Students from socially backward communities are demanding implementation of the committee report.

"What the JNU administration is doing with socially backward class students is what Dronacharya did to Eklavya (the low-caste archer)," Birendra Kumar, one of the suspended students, claimed.

In the suspension letter, the university had asked the students to vacate campus hostels and cautioned others not to give them shelter.

"The administration is treating us as untouchables. This is Brahmanvad," Kumar alleged.

Deleep Yadav, another suspended student, said a delegation of students had met registrar Kumar and demanded withdrawal of the suspension order. But the administration did not agree, he claimed.