Protesting students of the English and Foreign Languages University allege that they were being filmed by staff members while they were protesting without their consent.
In continuation of their protest against the university administration, students of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) started a boycott of their classes today, October 31.
The protest, which began on October 20 in response to the alleged physical and sexual assault of one of the students on campus, was halted temporarily on October 28, owing to a failure to establish dialogue with the proctorial board.
The students came to the decision to initiate the boycott after a Student Body Meeting conducted in the evening of yesterday, October 30, which was called to determine the strategy and next course of action. In addition to the boycott, the students also agreed to engage in a sit-in protest with their demands.
During this meeting, the formation of a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to oversee the protests was also announced. This body would comprise 11 members and will have representatives from the BA, MA, PhD, and BEd courses, as well as the EFLU Women’s Collective and the EFLU Queer Collective.
Freedoms being curbed
According to a student who wishes to remain anonymous, the university’s administration has been evading accountability and diverting the issue, instead of accepting the demands of the student body.
“Instead of ensuring that the culprits are identified and brought to justice, or even conducting the elections for the SPARSH (Sensitisation, Prevention, Action, and Redressal against Sexual Harassment) Committee, the administration has installed more CCTV cameras and floodlights on campus, boosted the presence of police personnel, installed gates in the campus, and are restricting the entry of delivery personnel into the campus. In the name of protection, they are curbing our freedom of movement,” she says.
Recently, the admin announced that the elections for the EFLU Student Council would be postponed due to the upcoming Telangana State Legislative Assembly elections – thus also postponing the SPARSH Committee elections as well.
“The Student Council elections were announced after the Telangana Government released the dates for the Vidhan Sabha elections. The admin was fully aware of the elections then. What changed now?”, asks the student.
Further, the student comments that the admin has been twisting the narrative since day 1. “Protests for SPARSH elections have been linked to the Muslim Students’ Federation, and it was alleged that they staged the protest because the admin prevented them from holding a discussion on Palestinian writers in the New Academic Block,” she explains.
She further adds that the admin had filed an FIR on 11 students from the protest, in a completely arbitrary manner. “We believe that this is an expression of vendetta against these particular students,” she says.
Another student, who also wishes to remain unnamed, says that it has come to a stage where the students were protesting for even the most basic freedoms.
“We are forbidden from going to certain places on the campus, like the open amphitheatre – which is why we marched there from the NAB in protest,” she says.
She also alleges that the protestors were recorded using 4k resolution cameras by the staff members themselves. “These cameras and equipment belong to the Education Multimedia Research Centre in EFLU. It is really shameful that the resources that exist for students’ education were being used against them,” she says.
Students say that the admin kept filming them despite all forms of resistance from them. “We turned on our flashlights and displayed banners and charts to stop them. It still was not enough to deter them,” one student says.
Refusal of admin to address the students
When a few students gheraoed the Deputy Proctor, who was entering the admin building, and demanded that the admin address the demands, he reportedly had nothing to say.
“The students questioned why the VC and the Proctor would not face the protesting students and listen to their demands, and why there was no FIR on the sexual assault incident. He also refused to take the document that detailed the students’ demands,” the students say.
Following this, the protest was called off by the JAC at 8:30 pm, students informed. Further, they also said that there would be a General Body Meeting of the students on Wednesday, November 1, to deliberate on ways to pressurise the admin to act on their demands.
The demands:
Through the boycott and the rejuvenated protesting, the students intend to push the following demands:
Immediate justice for the victim and the identification and punishment of the perpetrators
Withdrawal of the unjust and unwarranted FIR against the 11 students
Allow delivery executives and cab services into the campus without discrimination
Stop filming students without consent and using university resources
Conduct the ICC and Student elections as per schedule as there is no ground for postponement due to Vidhan Sabha elections
Removal of the proctorial board
Resignation of the Vice-Chancellor
Access to all spaces for students including all three gates, the open amphitheatre and the NAB
Removal of all surveillance in the form of CCTV and floodlights
Revoking the presence of the security agency under whose presence the assault occurred
Removal of Annexure 5, which prevents students from “participating in any protest/demonstration which is not in accordance with the laid down rules and regulations of the University”
