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Panjab University senate election protest turning into a divided house

By, Chandigarh
Dec 24, 2024 09:34 AM IST

An all party meeting was held on Monday to address this issue as per Sandeep, president of Students For Society (SFS) who had said that the senate election is their primary focus; the meeting had started late in the evening and had not concluded till the filing of the report

With a statement by the protesting students to make Panjab University a Punjab state university, and a press conference is scheduled on Tuesday in which, the students claim, they will present documents as proof that confirm Punjab’s claim over institution, the Panjab University Bachao Morcha is turning into a divided house after continuing to protest for over 60 days.

Only a small group of senators, most from the registered graduates constituency, are participating in the protest. (HT file photo)
Only a small group of senators, most from the registered graduates constituency, are participating in the protest. (HT file photo)

The statement was released by the morcha even as on Sunday some of the members present for the meeting had highlighted that the Punjab issue is likely to divert from the senate issue. A teacher hailing from Haryana had also highlighted how the issue may alienate a part of the varsity.

An all party meeting was held on Monday to address this issue as per Sandeep, president of Students For Society (SFS) who had said that the senate election is their primary focus. The meeting had started late in the evening and had not concluded till the filing of the report.

Speaking about this, Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) president Balraj Singh Sidhu said, “All parties are united when it comes to the senate elections issue, while other statements may have been made by others in their personal capacity we would not like to comment on it as it diverts from the reason why we have been on protest for so many days.”

Senators are also not seen much at the protest site now especially after Saturday’s call to burn effigies of the chancellor and vice-chancellor (V-C) at the Student Centre. One of the protesting senators had confirmed that they didn’t support this call by the students and had written a letter to PU officials asking that a meeting should be arranged with Jagdeep Dhankhar, Vice-President of India and PU chancellor, and who had left the university without holding any meetings. Even when protesters had been booked in an FIR for breaching the security of chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s event in PU in November, the senators had said they were not involved in this turn of events.

Senators divided over the issue

Unity between senators themselves also has been lacking since the start of the protest. Only a small group of senators, most from the registered graduates constituency, are participating in the protest. Some of the senators of the teaching constituency say they are okay with reforms to the senate body which is why many of the elected senators have not turned up for the protests.

Speaking about what PU plans to do next about the protests taking place, V-C Renu Vig said the teachers have failed in their duty if their students continue to remain misguided like this. The authorities have been working on resolving the issue, and it is expected that a committee with representatives of the protesters will be formed to suggest their own set of recommendations for the senate body. They had also approached a local court regarding this where the court had directed that students are entitled to continue their demonstration but can’t block the roads or cause inconvenience to PU officials.

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