The Students' Federation of India (SFI), Uttar Pradesh State Committee took out a protest march on Wednesday, September 6 against the suspension of three SFI student members for setting up help desks to assist fresher students at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The three students are Abhishek Kumar, Abdul Wahab and Vinod Kumar and they are currently pursuing their Master of Arts (MA) from the Department of Political Science at the varsity.
Explaining what happened, the SFI unit in a statement said, "On 5th of September 2023 at 10:30 AM, the College administration along with the proctor and security forcefully removed the physical helpdesk made available for the new students for certificate verification and counselling. The students have been physically present at the main gate from 6 in the morning helping out the students and parents by giving them any information regarding the procedures, certificates and general doubts giving prior notice to the administration."
The unit claims, "The help desk was set up on gate number 1 with prior intimation given to the proctor not once but thrice." However, the same proctor, along with security, "removed the helpdesk and tore down the decorations made by the students," they claimed.
Additionally, the statement alleged, "The proctor verbally threatened the students present there by saying they'll be beaten and worse put in Jail if the helpdesk is not removed." Following this, the distraught students sat on an indefinite strike at the same site where the helpdesk was set up, it added.
Suspension orders
The unit claims that at around 8.55 pm on September 5, 2023, three students were given suspension orders. The order issued by the proctor Prof. Sanjay Kumar, which EdexLive has access to, read, "As per the recommendations of the Proctorial Board, Mr. Abdul Wahab and Mr. Vinod Kumar, M.A., Department of Political Science are hereby suspended with immediate effect for Seven days (07) and during this period the University campus shall be out of bound for them."
Another order issued on the same date, shared with EdexLive by the students, read, "As per the recommendations of the Proctorial Board, the University campus is hereby declared to be out of bound for Mr. Abhishek Kumar, who is not presently regular University student, with immediate effect till further order."
The students' unit termed the suspension "illegal" and on September 6, staged a protest march inside Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University from the Central Library to the Ambedkar Bhawan at around 4 pm. It also submitted a memorandum to the vice-chancellor to revoke the suspension immediately. Additionally, they mentioned their other demands are:
- Resignation of the proctor
- Constitution of a committee to investigate the issuance of this illegal suspension notice by the proctor
- Allow students to conduct democratic and cultural activities like setting up a physical admission helpdesk inside the campus
What next?
When asked if there was any response from the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Sanjay Singh, Secretary of the SFI BBAU Unit and one of the students who was suspended, Abdul Wahab, informed EdexLive that there was no response. Reacting to the incident he said, "The proctor cracking down on students' organisation is against Babasaheb's idea. Remember Babasaheb said, 'Educate, Agitate, Organise'. It is only because Dr Ambedkar educated himself and agitated against the social evils of caste discrimination and untouchability, that we have this university which is specially provisioned to promote education among SC/ST (Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes) students by giving them appropriate reservation."
Disclosing their plans on what they want to do next, Wahab told EdexLive, "Possibly, we'll be distributing parchas (brochures) on what campus democracy is and how the university administration doesn't want to promote it."
Additionally, they are planning to stage another protest march on September 11 or 12, he added.
As per a Hindustan Times report, BBAU spokesperson informed that permission for the helpdesk was given on the condition that no symbol of any group or organisation will be used, which was violated.
