Two BBAU students get 7-day suspension

: Two students of Lucknow’s Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) were recently suspended for a period of seven days after they set up a help desk on the campus.

The suspended students, Wahab Ahmad and Vonod Kumar, are pursuing master’s in political science and volunteers of the Students’ Federation of India “The suspension notice was issued without giving us any reason. It has no basis on why it was issued,” said Wahab.

“We set up a help desk to facilitate candidates seeking admission at BBAU. The help desk was set up at gate number 1 with prior intimation given to the proctor Prof Sanjay Kumar. Later, the proctor forcely removed the helpdesk and tore down the decorations made by us,” Wahab alleged.

Meanwhile, the state unit of the SFI organised an indefinite sit-in protest demanding immediate revocation of arbitrary and illegal suspension notices served on the two students. They also demanded immediate removal of the proctor from his post, said SFI leaders Prabudh Singh and Vivek Vikram Singh. Also, the SFI’s BBAU unit took out a protest march on the campus from the central library to Ambedkar Bhawan at around 4 pm in support of the suspended students

When contacted, BBAU spokesperson Rachna Gangwar said: “The permission to set up the help desk was given with a condition that no organisation, name or symbol should be used. The students violated the condition.” The students had reportedly decorated the desk with a red star symbolising their affiliation with the SFI.