Panjab University debars 8 students for protesting, trying to enter V-C office forcibly

In the first such action taken against student protesters in the past few years, Panjab University (PU) on Friday debarred eight of its students for protesting and forcibly trying to enter vice-chancellor Renu Vig’s (V-C) office on Monday.

Their hostel facility has also been withdrawn in orders sent by the department heads of the students. They are not allowed to go to their respective departments for one month, and with exams taking place in the varsity they will have to miss their end semester exams for this period till May 31.

On April 29, the students tried to enter the office forcibly. However, Chandigarh Police officials were present on the spot and the students were detained, and taken to the Sector-11 police station.

Seven of the students are from the Sath party while one is from the Students For Society party. Both the parties had been sitting on a protest outside the V-C office for over two weeks now alleging that PU authorities are not doing anything to start OBC reservation on the campus for students and for faculty recruitment. The authorities, meanwhile, claimed that they are doing what they can and have formed a committee, and will have to follow protocol to enforce this, which will take at least a few months to do.

Earlier, Joint Action Committees (JAC) were formed in department of laws, university institute of legal studies and department of biophysics, among others, to which the students belong to and were given a clean chit by the JACs. However, later in a committee constituted with all the department chairpersons, the order to debar the students for one month was issued.

After the students organised a protest outside the V-C office on Friday and raised slogans, some of them were called to hold a meeting with the authorities.

As per a member of the committee, students were asked to give in written that they will only protest peacefully. The committee, which had issued the orders to debar the students, will meet again to reconsider the decision after the assurance from the students. They are expected to give their final decision to students by Monday, as some of them have an exam on Tuesday.

The students, whose hostel facility was revoked, have been allowed to continue staying there till the committee meets again and takes a final decision.

The police had earlier issued an advisory to PU regarding political protests on the campus with the model code of conduct in force. However, police officials confirmed that students can hold peaceful protests on campus as long as they follow the rules and don’t make the protests political.

Even on Friday, police were present in large numbers as students gave speeches on the chowk outside the V-C office but the situation remained peaceful. Traffic jams were seen outside PU with intensive checking in place at the PU gates and many cars were turned back for not having PU ID cards.