BENGALURU: Students protesting at the Azim Premji University (APU) have hit out at the university post the death of student Abhijit Shinde, stating that the university used the death as an opportunity to ‘defame’ the protest.
The students have been protesting since February 23, asking for a waiver in shuttle fees imposed by the university this year. While the university stated that the students were given prior notice of the shuttle fees and are still choosing to protest, the students have maintained that they were not properly intimated on the issue prior to admissions.
“This is in response to the ‘statement’ the University released on February 26 announcing the demise of our friend and clarifying relevant ‘facts’. The administration has taken advantage of this moment to defame the democratic protest of the students, isolate the protest and brand our demands as ‘entirely unreasonable’.
The first ‘statement’ that the university put up contained factual errors regarding Abhijit’s involvement in the protest — it claimed that he was not part of the protest in its last two days. After much pushback, the administration decided to rephrase it in a misleading manner, wherein it failed to acknowledge the active role of Abhijit in the struggle even in its revised ‘statement’,” the students said.
Further, the students reiterated their own timeline of the shuttle fee issue, stating that the university had sent a provisional offer letter to students, with the statement, ‘Transportation charges will be extra and will be communicated to you later’, included.
The students stated that they were asked to pay an acceptance fee in response to the provisional offer letter without prior knowledge of the shuttle fees. They also stated that the university had isolated the group of protesting students, terming them as a ‘small group’, despite over 350 students voicing support for the protest.