Thrown out of the hostel on the night of February 25, Apoorva YK, a second-year LLM student from South Asian University (SAU) has been camping outside the main gate of the college, demanding to be taken back in. She was one of the students who were served an expulsion notice on February 18.
"I have nowhere to go. The campus is located in a forested area and when they evicted me at night, I had no option but to sit outside the gate. And today is the third day of my sit-in protest," Apoorva tells. She alleges that even so, the administration has not come to address her situation. Asked if she is alone, the law student says, "My friends come and go. They cannot be here all the time."
An MPhil scholar in Sociology was also served with an expulsion notice, while two other students were given rustication letters. Apoorva informs that they were also evicted on February 25, but they had places to relocate to, but she did not. She also informs that the students were asked to submit apology letters to the administration. But even after doing so, they were evicted.
"Their letters were rejected. I was not asked to submit one. But I would like to meet the authorities and resolve the matter with effective dialogue. I want to ask the authorities what I need to do to be taken back in. But they have not come to visit me during my protest, nor have they been responsive to my requesters for a dialogue," Apoorva stated.
The action taken on these students stems from the fact that they participated in a couple of protests last year, they claim. The students demanded that the stipends given for Master's degree courses be increased. The SAU administration then slapped show-cause notices on the agitators and a few rustication notices were issued. Ammar Ahmad was one of the receivers of such notice. The student demanded that it be revoked, but when it wasn't, he suffered from a cardiac arrest, following prolonged hospitalisation.
The SAU campus erupted in a fresh protest, demanding justice for Ammar. About a hundred students demanded that Ammar be cleared of all the charges and his hospital expense be covered by the varsity. Later, an interrogation committee was set up by the university, which on January 13 doled out show-cause notices to five students, including Apoorva. Then the expulsion notice followed a month later.
EdexLive tried to reach out to the administration for clarification on the situation, but received no response. This report will be updated accordingly.