Panjab University Protests: Students Celebrate as Vice President Approves Senate Election Schedule
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: After several weeks of standoff, the Union government has accepted a main demand of the protesting students of Panjab University, who had been carrying out an agitation against the dissolution and reconstitution of the 59-year-old Senate and Syndicate of Panjab University (PU).
After vice-president of India and PU chancellor C.P. Radhakrishnan approved the senate election schedule that was submitted by vice-chancellor Prof Renu Vig on November 9, the students burst into celebrations on Thursday (November 27), reported The Tribune.
A formal communication, issued by Sarita Chauhan, under secretary, Vice-President Secretariat and sent to the PU VC states that the Chancellor has approved the schedule of Senate elections “as proposed in the aforementioned letter”.
Earlier, after the Union government’s decision to restructure the senate of the varsity resulted in protests from students, the Centre was forced to rollback its decision within a week and issued a record four notifications between October 30 and November 7.
But the students continued their protest and were supported by nearly all anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political, religious, social and civil society groups, including Nihang organisations of the Quami Insaaf Morcha.
The protesters staged an indefinite dharna, which resulted in two campus shutdowns and an unprecedented youth protest on November 10.
On Thursday, VC Vig reached the protest site and conveyed the Chancellor’s approval, and appealed to students to call off their agitation.
Vig said that both their core demands including rollback of the overhaul and approval of the Senate poll schedule as per the pre-October 30 structure have been met, reported The Tribune.
Earlier, students also alleged that there have been repeated attempts by the Union government to curtail the democratic autonomy of the university, which will no longer be tolerated.
The centre’s latest overhaul, now stand withdrawn, had sought to reduce the number of senate members, from 97 to 31, abolish elections to the syndicate, and scrap the registered graduate constituency, a unique feature of Panjab University’s democratic governance model.
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