New Delhi: A day after a clash broke out between the All India Students’ Association (AISA)-led student body and the campus security guard at Ambedkar University Delhi on Tuesday evening, the administration suspended 11 students indefinitely.
Blessy K Abraham, an AISA member and first year MA student at the university, however, claimed that the leadership of the AISA was not even present on the day. “We have all been suspended for something we were not even present for,” Abraham told ThePrint.
Students has been protesting outside the back gate of the university since 28 September over infrastructure problems, faculty vacancies, surveillance measures and restrictions on campus activities.
“Only the vice chancellor, proctor and a few others have been allowed to use the main gate to enter the university since 2024,” said Adwitya, an MA Urban Studies student at AUD. “The back gate is unsafe for students; there have been multiple complaints of sexual harassment near it,” she alleged further.
Why students are protesting
AISA, which is the CPI(ML)’s student wing, has been holding peaceful protests at the university campus for nearly two weeks.
Abraham claimed that students have complained multiple times about the poor condition of the toilets, libraries and frequent incidents of theft near the back gate. But the authorities have not addressed these concerns.
“There have been several cases of theft and other harassment in the back alley,” alleged Abraham.
Adwitya claimed further that there is no scholar room for PhD students, the classrooms get flooded whenever it rains, and air conditioners don’t work in classrooms. She also claimed that there is no drinking water facility in our university. To add to the woes, AISA claimed that there is no faculty for certain courses in the university.
The students’ key demand, however, is to open the front gate of the university for its students.
“The university has a front gate, which would be much safer for students to use. But we are compelled to use this back alley just because of our sharing campus,” said Abraham. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi in Kashmere Gate shares its campus premises with Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women.
Jai Bhim Comrade screening
The students have been protesting for 17 days in a row but the matter escalated only after AISA organised a film screening on 13 October.
In the evening of the same day, when the protesting students were about to screen Jai Bhim Comrade, a documentary film on lives of Dalits in Mumbai, the guards allegedly tore the posters and the white sheets, required to screen it.
“We had set up a projector on the Wall of Democracy, where posters were also put up. Students can decide what goes up on the wall. We put up white chart papers, but they tore them down. We then tried putting up a bedsheet, but the guards tore it down too,” Abraham alleged.
Abraham claimed the guards were unruly and they attacked both female and male students. “They tore students’ clothes while a few students even got injured,” Abraham alleged.
The matter further escalated when the administration allegedly cut electricity.
Ali, a student who tried to convince the guards to allow the screening, was allegedly assaulted by the guards. “He had bruises on his leg. He was beaten with boots. The students demanded the guards to leave him alone but they didn’t listen,” Abraham claimed. She added that Ali climbed up a tree to escape the beating.
Suspension and legal routes
Right after the scuffle, the university suspended the students.
In a statement issued a day later, the university said that after reviewing “the preliminary report of the Proctorial Board, CCTV footage and other visual inputs, the students have been placed under suspension with immediate effect for their alleged involvement in acts of indiscipline.”
The university also barred the suspended students from entering the campus. Moreover, the suspension orders do not specify any duration.
The university further said that the Proctorial Board and Disciplinary Committee will submit the report in a week.
For now the students are trying to pursue this legally.
“The cases for suspensions are very arbitrary. There is no reason to suspend us,” said Abraham, adding that they will continue to protest. “But for now, we have concluded our independent sit-in. We are planning to come back next week,” she said.
(Edited by Aakriti Handa)