After more than 24 hours of protest, students of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad have called off their protest until Monday, September 23.
The protests began in the afternoon of yesterday, September 19, over the lack of quality in the mess food, and intensified today, September 20 as the university authorities allegedly abused the protesting students, and called off the Student Union Elections for this academic year, scheduled for Tuesday, September 24.
Talha Mannan, one of the protesting students and a candidate in the now cancelled Student Union elections, told EdexLive that students had been expressing concerns over the quality of food served in the hostel’s mess over the last two months.
“Yesterday afternoon, when residents of the boys’ hostel started questioning the hygiene standards and quality of the food and agitating against its lack of quality, the hostel provost made irreverent statements instead of listening to our concerns,” he narrated. The students found insects in the lunch, reports Siasat.
According to Talha, the provost’s replies that the mess was “not a five-star hotel” to questions about the food’s quality agitated the students further — resulting in the proctorial team being called in.
He adds that the confrontation further grew into a full-blown protest when the provost allegedly hurled abuses at the students.
“Students from the girls’ hostel joined the agitation too, and we rallied against more issues in the functioning of the hostel,” he says and adds that the protest moved to the administration block.
Some of the issues raised by the students include unfair rules in the allocation of hostel rooms, frequent raids and checks, and hefty fines levied in the name of disciplinary action.
During the protest, police personnel were called in by the administration last night to curb the agitation, should it get out of hand. This did not deter the students, as they continued their agitation and even slept at the protest site.
Even as the provost of the boys’ hostel, Mohd Yusuf Khan handed in his resignation last night, the students continued their protest, demanding the resignation of the provost of the girls’ hostel, a written apology from the varsity’s Proctor Prof Abdul Azeem and his resignation, as well as that of the girls’ hostel provost Sameena Basu.
However, the students would be in for a rude awakening — quite literally — as the administration announced the cancellation of the Student Union elections for the year 2024-25, as a result of the “unrest” on the campus.
Following this, the students also started demanding that the elections be held according to schedule, along with the resignations of the girls’ hostel provost and the proctor, as well as a written apology from him.
By evening today, the students expressed their willingness to hold talks with the administration of the university and the police. In the negotiations, however, they were given one choice — withdraw the agitation, or face arrest.
“The administration filed complaints against 15 of the protestors. There were police cars and arrest vehicles on the campus, ready to pick us up if we didn’t comply,” Talha said. Even their request to continue the agitation until Monday was not accepted, he added.
“Therefore we had to agree to withdraw the protest temporarily, as some students were naturally concerned by the arrest threat,” he said. It was also finally agreed that the student representatives of the protest would sit with the police and the university administration to negotiate their demands.
The students’ new demands are as follows:
Conduct of the Student Union elections as per schedule
Removal of legal complaints against the students
A written apology from the proctor and his resignation
Resignation of the provost of the girls’ hostel
Talha says that the course of the agitation would be further decided depending on the outcome of the negotiations.
