LUCKNOW: With students of Aligarh Muslim University continuing their protests despite repeated appeals by Vice-Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor to resume classes and take exams, the university administration may have no option but to shut the campus down for a period of time.
Amid the heavy security arrangements, including the deployment of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) on campus, the student groups are now seeking withdrawal of "false cases" against those who participated in protests against the amended citizenship act on December 15.
AMU Vice-Chancellor Prof Tariq Mansoor had written an open letter to protesting students on Wednesday appealing to them to take the exams. He had urged them not to fall prey to rumours and misguided elements with vested interests. “I appeal to the students whose future is of utmost importance to me, to not fall prey to rumours, propaganda spread by vested interests and to appear in the examinations and attend classes.”
The AMU V-C also termed his appeal as ‘final’ and said if academic activities did not resume on campus, there would be no justification to keep it open and make 23,000 students sit idle.
“This is my last appeal to all to maintain peace and tranquillity on the campus and to please appear in the exams and attend classes from January 30, 2020. Already 18 days have gone by without any academic activity,” said Prof Mansoor.
Sources said a high-level meeting of university authorities was convened. It was presided over by the AMU V-C and heads of various departments had participated in it. Aligarh SSP Akash Kulhary and District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh were also present in the meeting wherein it was decided to strike a direct dialogue between the HODs and the students. If the effort doesn’t succeed, the last option left would be to close the campus sine die.