NEW DELHI: Students of Delhi University staged a protest on Monday against Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh’s recent remarks describing student movements and activists such as Pinjra Tod and Professor Hany Babu as “Urban Naxals.”
The demonstration, called by the All India Students’ Association (AISA), began from Gate No. 4 along Chhatra Marg and saw students raising slogans in defence of campus democracy. Protesters alleged that the Vice-Chancellor’s comments aimed to “criminalise student movements” and “discredit voices of dissent.”
According to AISA, police personnel and university security were deployed at several points across the campus during the march, though students continued their demonstration peacefully.
Addressing the gathering, Anjali, AISA’s Delhi University Secretary, criticised the Vice-Chancellor’s remarks as “anti-student and anti-democratic.” She said the statement was an attempt to “brand student assertions as anti-national” and “silence progressive voices on campus.”
In its statement, AISA said the University of Delhi has historically been a space for debate, discussion, and democratic participation, and that the VC’s remarks were “contrary to the spirit of academic freedom.”
The controversy comes amid growing tensions between student organisations and the administration over academic freedom and the right to dissent. The speech video was from VC Yogesh Singh’s address at Bharat Manthan 2025: Naxal Mukt Bharat, organised at Vigyan Bhawan on September 28.
