Pondicherry University students claim victory, call off indefinite strike after meeting Vice Chancellor

The Action Council was formed by all seven major outfits of the campus except the ABVP, namely SFI, NSUI, ASA, AISF, APSF, SIO and MSF.
PU students gheraoing the administrative building on Monday (Photo | (Facebook/Sreekanth Sivadasan)
PU students gheraoing the administrative building on Monday (Photo | (Facebook/Sreekanth Sivadasan)

Around 600 students, who have been protesting against the alleged saffronisation and crackdown on democratic rights in Pondicherry University, called off the strike following a meeting with the Vice Chancellor. The Joint Action Council, formulated by the coming together of seven student organisations, officially called off the indefinite strike stating that the varsity authorities have agreed to all their demands and dispersed after a victory rally in the campus.

The internal examinations, which were suspended on Monday following the protest will commence from Tuesday, a student said.

A set of new rules passed by the administration at the beginning of this academic year banning all gatherings after 6:00 PM in the campus had created displeasure among the students. This was followed by the putting up of a pro-Hindu poster on the notice board of the Aurobindo Hostel of the university. The authorities had also published state-wise list of inhabitants outside each hostel, which the students claim was a move to create division among them. This resulted in the formation of the Action Council and the strike began at 5:00 PM on Sunday.

"During the meeting, they said that the list was made for the NAAC team (who are visiting the varsity for an inspection on Tuesday) to understand that the campus respects diversity and no sort of segregation exists here. They have promised to remove them immediately after the visit," said Ajmal Rasheed, a unit committee member of the Students Federation of India.

He added that the administration said that pro-Hindu poster was stuck unintentionally, and such things won't happen in future.

The students had called for class boycott and gherao on Monday as no terms were reached till Sunday night.

PU gets more political freedom

The agitators were demanding the right to peacefully organise and protest in the campus, which they claim to have been taken away from them in recent times. However, after the meeting, it was decided that the polls to the university student's council will be conducted on political lines. The authorities have also given permission to use microphones and other means of canvassing as part of election campaigns. So far, no form of direct political mobilising was allowed in the varsity. Though absolute freedom for student organisations can't be guaranteed, permission to conduct programmes wouldn't be denied if notified seven days prior to the event.

Protesting students at PU's BR Ambedkar building (Facebook/Sreekanth Sivadasan)
Protesting students at PU's BR Ambedkar building (Facebook/Sreekanth Sivadasan)

The administration has agreed that the other demands raised by the students, especially those regarding the availability of clean drinking water, hostel wifi and vending machines as reasonable demands and have asked for a month's time to resolve them.

Rights won the hard way

It took almost 24 hours of continuous picketing and sloganeering by the students to take their woes to a discussion table with the Vice Chancellor. The students who started with protesting at the Gate 2 of the varsity around 5:00 PM on Sunday, later moved the administrative block by night since nobody concerned showed up to talk. Most of them spend the night before the administrative building not ready to give up. Though the University Registrar came down to talk with them twice, he wasn't ready to reason with them, the students said.

"We continued agitating before the closed doors of the of the administrative building from morning. It was only by 2: 00 PM today that the VC finally agreed to talk to us. Two members each from the seven organisations and another four independent students held a meeting with the VC, Registrar, all Head of the Departments and other officers, following which they agreed to our conditions," said Niyas Ali, unit Vice President of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF).

Edexlive published a statement issued by the university authorities that read:

"Pondicherry University is a secular institution imparting quality higher education to students and Research Scholars from all parts of the country irrespective of any religion, caste or creed. We firmly deny there are any .move of saffronisation of the University Campus. Steps are being taken by the University authorities to provide WiFi facility at Aurobindo Hostel. All the other places have 24x7 WiFi connectivity. Our Vice-Chancellor Professor Gurmeet Singh and Registrar Dr Sasi Kanta Dash are working tirelessly to improve all-round facilities and existing infrastructure in the interest of students community."

The Action Council was formed by all seven major outfits of the campus except the ABVP, namely SFI, NSUI, ASA, AISF, APSF, SIO and MSF.

The students had earlier alleged that the authorities are promoting Hindutva agenda in the campus with the support of the ABVP. 

"While the political space for other organisations were decreasing day by day in the campus, only the ABVP was permitted to form various associations and spread their ideology in the campus. The same VC who usually blame the lack of fund for not supporting any activities in the campus was seen spending on the beautification of the campus for the NAAC visit. All these issues were raised in the meeting," said Abhijeet Sudhakaran who represented SFI in the meeting said.

Meanwhile, the campus ABVP unit published a release stating the strike to be a move aiming to gain political mileage. They said many of the issues raised by the Action Council are those already raised by them, but they have decided to stay back from any protests at the moment since they don't want to tarnish the university's "pride" before the visiting NAAC team.

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