“Baab-e-Syed Became an ‘Arena’; Female Student Faints, Security Guard Injured” – so read the Dainik Jagran headline covering the events of August 4, 2025. The only problem? It was describing a peaceful protest. Even now, it continues in the same spirit.

But headlines can lie. Students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) hadn’t gathered at Baab-e-Syed to fight, to vandalise, or to make an “arena” of their campus. They had come with placards, demands, and patience after weeks of sending unanswered emails, making unanswered calls, and receiving unanswered appeals. They sat on the ground, absolutely unarmed and unthreatening, at the university’s most symbolic gate, asking a simple question: Why has our fee been increased by 40%?

The framing of this protest as an “arena” was no accident. It was a deliberate choice, allegedly by the administration itself – to turn pain into performance, to strip the moment of dignity and reframe it as a disorder. This has been the oldest trick in the book : if you can make the protest look unruly, you never have to address the reasons behind it.

To call Baab-e-Syed an “arena” is to miss its truth. It was a place where students met power with only words and placards. Opposite them stood an administration that deployed no batons, yet struck harder through silence, constant watch, and the quiet dismantling of their voice.

The fee hike itself is staggering. For many students, especially those from modest backgrounds, a 40% increase isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s the difference between staying in the university and dropping out.

The fact that the administration pushed through such a change without serious dialogue only deepens the wound. In a public institution which was meant to uplift the marginalised, such a move feels less like a reform and more like exclusion dressed as policy. It sends a clear message : education here is welcome, but only for those who can afford the new price tag.

This isn’t a lone battle. Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi has shown support by taking to social media to demand an immediate rollback of the hike and an inquiry into harassment claims against students, calling the developments at AMU a direct attack on students’ rights.

The presidents of both Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) and Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) have publicly extended their support to AMU students. Solidarity is welcomed. But it also exposes how isolated AMU’s own students have been left on their own campus.

And that leads us to what I believe is the core problem: AMU has had no functioning student union since 2017, when the administration suspended the Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union (AMUSU) citing unrest and security concerns. The AMUSU, once a powerful voice in campus affairs and national student politics, has been reduced to a hall with a nameplate, but no elected representatives.

In the name of a student union, students have been given only a building. No elections. No leadership. No power. This is the same AMUSU that mobilised students during the freedom struggle, stood firm during the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation movements, and later shaped democratic protests in independent India. To strip AMU of this institution is not just to silence the dissent but to erase a legacy that once shaped the nation’s political consciousness.

This is not unique to AMU. At Allahabad University, the century-old students’ union was replaced by a top-down “student council.” In other universities across the country, direct student elections have been suspended or quietly scrapped. The message is consistent: dissent is dangerous, so better to have no dissent at all.

The government might eventually roll back the fee hike. It’s a short-term concession they can afford to make. But restoring AMUSU? That would mean restoring a structure that can speak, challenge, and mobilize. And that is precisely what they don’t want.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan founded AMU with the vision of nurturing leadership, critical thought, and courage. A campus without its student union, without its voice, is not the AMU he dreamt of. If we accept a rollback of fees without the restoration of AMUSU, we accept a future where students are seen, but never heard.

Nabeel Bin Tasneem is a student of Political Science at AMU.

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