The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) on Wednesday criticised the university administration for seeking an FIR over slogans raised during a campus event, accusing both the administration and Delhi Police of criminalising protest.

The comments came in response to an event organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) to mark the sixth anniversary of the January 5, 2020 campus attack.

Slogans allegedly targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah were raised at the event. The Delhi police confirmed that an FIR has been registered following a complaint from the university administration.

In a statement titled 'Stop the Criminalisation of Protest', JNUTA said the administration, through its chief security officer, had taken a "ridiculous position of asking the Delhi Police to register an FIR on simply the raising of slogans" at the event.

It also alleged that both the university administration and the police had failed to act against those responsible for the 2020 violence.

"The JNU administration and the Delhi Police are precisely those that failed to first prevent the undeniably criminal act of violence six years ago, and then found themselves 'unable' to identify and take action against those responsible," the statement said.

Drawing parallels with the 2016 controversy, the teachers' body said the latest action followed a pattern of attempts to delegitimise dissent.

A sedition case had been registered against student leaders following alleged "anti-national" slogans raised at a gathering on February 9, 2016.

"The real purpose of this drama is only to legitimise the throttling of all protest and to destroy the democratic ethos of the university that had been the bedrock of its success as a public institution," the statement added.

JNUTA said the FIR episode showed that "10 years of the pursuit of the agenda of destroying JNU has failed to vanquish the spirit of the university," adding that resistance to what it described as the administration's authoritarianism "has remained alive."

The association also condemned attempts to malign the university through sections of the media and reiterated its commitment to continue the struggle "in defence of the university," appealing to faculty to remain vigilant "against any provocations."

The statement was signed by JNUTA president Surajit Mazumdar and secretary Meenakshi Sundriyal.