New Delhi: The back-to-back suspensions of students at Dr B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) is the administration’s attempt to “stifle” democratic expression and “silence” criticism, said two of the suspended students at a press conference organised by Ambedkar University Delhi Students’ Council (AUDSC) Tuesday.
Ahead of the press meet, members of the students’ council had stated in a message circulated on different platforms that “a severe crackdown on student dissent and campus democracy has been unleashed in Ambedkar University Delhi”.
“We were standing up against an instance of blatant humiliation. We tried all institutional routes, we wrote letters, met the registrar, and demanded an internal inquiry. But nothing was done,” said Sharanya Verma, joint secretary of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and one of the suspended students pursuing an MA degree in performance sciences at AUD. “When we held a protest inside the Kashmere Gate campus, the administration suspended us instead.”
Apart from Sharanya, Shubhojeet Dey, a student of MA development studies and member of AUDSC also spoke at the press meet. The two are among five students who were suspended following a protest on campus earlier this month, calling for the revocation of suspensions of three other students last month who had highlighted a bullying incident at the university. The suspensions of the first three were revoked by the AUD after they moved the Delhi High Court.
The university has accused the students of “indiscipline” and “disrupting university functioning”.
ThePrint reached Vice-Chancellor Anu Singh Lather for comment via call and message. This report will be updated if and when a response is received. Aditya, public relations officer at AUD, told ThePrint Wednesday that there is “no official statement for now”.
“What the registrar has stated earlier is official from the university’s side. The university is following its due process,” he added.
Speaking at the press meet in New Delhi’s Press Club of India, Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US, said there was an urgent need for solidarity with the suspended students and faculty since there is a “systematic attack” on higher education in India, adding that the attacks happen in different ways.
“They are determined to destroy the university to provide a culture of impunity to the administration. To do as they are told, presumably by some higher-ups, to avoid any possible democracy within the campus and to create an atmosphere of fear and intolerance to any kind of opposition,” she said. “This is the first step in the destruction of the university, and is a real concern.”
Ghosh said that with India having being colonised for long, it is already hard to build up good institutions of higher learning in the nation, but now “it is even hard to create genuine centres of learning, critical thoughts, inquiry and scientific understanding”.
“It’s an attack on democratic values. It’s an attack on the spirit of the Constitution. It’s an attack on any feasible way in which India can survive as a polity that we would all like to live in,” she added.
At the press meet, Apoorvanand, a senior professor at University of Delhi, said there was no reason for the AUD administration to consider students as enemies—“a pattern seen often in all universities across India”.
He added that after revoking the initial suspension of three students, the university decided to suspend five more students, creating a “culture of fear”.
Moreover, he said, things did not end there. After the suspensions, the parents of these “adult” students were called.
Apoorvanand said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure that students feel safe and comfortable on campus. “We are appealing to the media, to the other political parties, and to the rest of the society, that they should understand the seriousness of this and stand with the students.”
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What happened
In March, the AUD suspended three students following a demonstration related to an alleged ragging-linked suicide attempt by a first-year student.
This led to several student protests and demands for revocation of the suspensions, leading to the suspension of five more students on 11 April pending an inquiry—a move that students and faculty members say fits into a growing pattern of “institutional clampdown on student dissent”.
“The Kashmere Gate campus is under a severe lockdown with half of the campus made out-of-bounds to students,” members of the students’ council stated in their message.
Sharanya said the students who had been accused of bullying were also initially suspended by the university, but that action was revoked within a week, after which the protest movement was launched by the students’ council.
Since then, she said, the whole university campus has been barricaded by the authorities while the administration block has been made inaccessible to students. Outside the main gate of the university, a notice says entry is restricted for students and teachers, she added.
The suspension of five students followed a hunger strike by the students on campus, in which one person fainted. Representatives of the students then decided to write to the Vice-Chancellor about their concerns, Sharanya said, adding that no response has been received till now.
After several emails, Sharanya, Shubhojeet and three other students decided to go to the university’s main gate to find a way to directly speak to the V-C. On 11 April, she alleged, the students were attacked by the guards.
“The students got injured. Their necks were pressed with batons. The female students were manhandled by the guards. My clothes were torn,” Sharanya told the gathering at the press meet, adding that the same evening, she and four others received a communication from AUD informing them that they were barred from entering the campus until an inquiry was complete.
“We were not given any kind of show-cause notice, inquiry or time period about the suspension,” Sharanya said, adding that two of the suspended students are in their final semester and will not be able to give their dissertations if they remain suspended.
The AUD authorities have alleged that students vandalised official vehicles and obstructed university operations—charges which have been denied by the students.
Registrar Navlendra Kumar Singh had earlier told PTI that the students blocked his car and that of Lather. “They hung on to my vehicle and did not allow it to move. They also blocked the V-C’s car and vandalised mine. Security personnel and police had to intervene. A formal complaint has been filed and an FIR will be registered,” he had said.
‘Part of wider pattern’
Abha Dev Habib, a professor and former Delhi University Executive Council member, also strongly criticised the ongoing “crackdown” at AUD, saying that it is part of a wider pattern of assaults on public universities across India.
She alleged that the government was systematically dismantling institutions built over decades without offering viable alternatives, particularly harming accessible higher education. “The attack on universities is an attack on the country,” she declared, underlining the broader implications for democracy and citizenship.
She raised concerns about shrinking space for dissent, saying fear and polarisation are becoming normalised, and students are “punished for resisting injustice while perpetrators face no consequences”.
Habib further criticised the “use of student fees to fund legal action” against students themselves, calling it “shameful”. She said there is an erosion of critical thinking spaces, stating that faculty are being silenced and made complicit in this decline.
Kaustav Banerjee, a professor at AUD speaking on behalf of the AUD Faculty Association, condemned the student suspensions and called for their immediate revocation.
He said that punitive actions, starting from the suspension of student Mantasha earlier this year for criticising the V-C’s speech to that of others who challenged the administration’s “inaction on bullying”, were undermining campus democracy.
“Suspension of the students must be revoked,” he asserted, urging the administration to open space for dialogue between students, faculty and the management to restore normalcy.
Banerjee highlighted that public universities like AUD serve the educational aspirations of working and middle-class communities who cannot afford elite private institutions.
Drawing attention to inconsistent disciplinary standards, he criticised the leniency shown to students involved in actual violence while those engaged in peaceful protest face harsh penalties.
He further stressed on the need to protect both campus democracy and students’ futures through dialogue, not repression.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)