The Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) has withheld the results of 40 students and levied fines from various batches for protesting against the hike in mess fees.
The students had organised a demonstration at the main university gate on June 6 and 7, preventing the admission of teaching and non-teaching employees as well as other MANUU stakeholders after the mess fee was hiked in May.
The university said the decision to withhold the results was made after an investigation by a three-person fact-finding team, which recommended punishment proportionate to the degree of involvement of every student in the protest.
On August 18, MANUU ordered that 16 students be expelled from the dormitory and fined between Rs. 1000 and Rs. 5000. The students were even prohibited from reapplying for admission for the following three years.
The students, however, say that the committee did not approach or make an attempt to communicate with any of them; rather, they were sent the office order. They appear startled and afraid by what the institution did.
“Protest is a democratic prerogative of the students, and we were justly doing so,” declared Mursaleen Aslam, president of MANUU Students’ Union. The university’s activities aim to quell any campus criticism. We have repeatedly attempted to speak with the administration, but to no effect,” he said.
“The fact-finding committee never paid any attention to the issue students were protesting for but only communicated to us through the office order where they instructed the students to comply with the subsequent charges imposed by them in the form of punishment,” the student protester said.
He added that at least 22 of the 40 students who had received the warning had already paid the fine imposed by the university since they urgently needed their mark sheets for placement and entrance to higher education programmes.
The MANUU proctor, M. A. Azeem, gave The Cognate an explanation of the entire episode, saying, “First of all, they were criticising the incorrect authorities. The university plays absolutely no part in the mess’ management, which is handled by the students. We only facilitate the students to run the mess”.
“The students have all the right to protest and dissent but in a peaceful democratic manner. Students, teaching personnel, and non-teaching employees experienced inconvenience as a result of the campus’ main gates remaining locked for two days. Delegates had difficulty getting to the location because a seminar was simultaneously taking place on campus.”
He stated, “The fact-finding commission established by the university has made a decision, and the punishment is given in accordance with MANUU Students Conduct and Discipline Rules, 2014.”
Four students have so far gotten their certificates and mark sheets after paying the punishment determined by the university and submitting a declaration letter.
Meanwhile, the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) at MANUU has denounced the administration’s notice to the students, calling for the revocation of the suspension and rollback of the orders.
Standing in support of the students the organisation in a statement said, “University campuses are democratic spaces where all voices of dissent should be heard and entertained accordingly. The protest that happened on the 6th and 7th June 2022 was nothing but the immediate response of the students on the issue of the mess fee hike. The administration failed to deal with the issue properly and address the genuine concerns of the students”.
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Ghazala Ahmad is the Delhi Correspondent for The Cognate.
