Phagwara: A ragtag line of sputtering auto-rickshaws emerges from a narrow, potholed lane of Maheru village. These multi-coloured three-wheelers are the preferred mode of transport here, especially for non-campus students of the nearby Lovely Professional University (LPU).
In recent years, Maheru, about 15 km from Phagwara, has morphed into a residential hub for students, replete with eateries and electronics outlets apart from an array of rental accommodations.
The old brick-and-mortar buildings are left behind as the auto-rickshaw wends its way towards National Highway 44; a sea of lush green fields is passed through before it stops at a gated compound. “Law Gate, LPU, Law Gate, LPU,” the drivers cry, making their destination known to all within earshot. Young men and women in fashionable streetwear wriggle aboard; the rat-a-tat journey resumes.
The fields end in a cluster of newly-built gated societies, marked by eateries and cafes, some of them even offering Japanese and Korean cuisine.
Another kilometre and one reaches the 600-acre LPU, surrounded by villages like Maheru: Chaheru, Narangpur, Haridaspur, Nanak Nagri, Sapror, and Nangal. Since the inception of LPU in 2001, these villages have seen a similar transition, mushrooming of paying guest accommodations, opening up of diverse restaurants and service-oriented shops catering primarily to the university’s students.
“This was all agricultural fields with just a bargad ka ped (banyan tree) and three shops around the area,” says Chaheru resident Harman Singh, pointing at the entrance gate of LPU. Looking at the vast expanse of the varsity, the 68-year-old Phagwara court employee says no buses plied here two decades ago; auto-rickshaws were an exotic species.
“I had to walk from Chaheru to court. Now this has become a dedicated bus stop and an important commercial area in this zone,” he says, looking at a sign that reads ‘LPU, 0 km’.
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The Mittal phenom
The transformation of this area began in 2001 when Ashok Mittal, a BJP member of the Rajya Sabha and part of the Lovely Group, bought 3.5 acres of land in these villages for the construction of an infotech school. By 2002 the campus began housing engineering and pharmacy departments; law courses commenced the year after. With just 280 students in 2001, LPU at present has 35,676 students, with 86.5 per cent of them from other states of India, according to its official website.
Looking at the colossal spread of the university, it is hard to believe that the group began their business with a small sweets shop in Jalandhar Cantt area. “Baldev Raj Mittal migrated to Punjab from Rajasthan and set up a sweet shop in Jalandhar Cantt area. They soon expanded to a bigger mall-like shop and then ventured into automobiles and then this university,” says Binder Kumar Ruchi, the sarpanch of Haridaspur.
Leaving a job with a military contractor, Baldev Mittal had started the sweet shop in 1961 with a loan amount of Rs 500. After his sons Ramesh and Naresh Mittal joined him later, they began operating ‘sweets showrooms’ in the region. Later Ashok Mittal, Baldev’s youngest son, joined the business and opened an automobile dealership. With the rapid growth in both the sweets business and automobile dealership, Ashok Mittal ventured into the education sector, founding LPU in 2005.
Mittal continues to be LPU Chancellor, even after his foray into national politics. “Paying back more than what we are paid for serves as the cornerstone of his (Ashok Mittal’s) philosophy, propelling his dedicated efforts towards giving back to society,” says his official website.
With money as well as fame on his side, Mittal entered national politics in 2022 as a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket. Over time, Mittal became a prominent face in the Upper House, defending AAP’s governance in Punjab and making pointed remarks about the BJP-led Centre’s control in Chandigarh. When Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chaddha switched to the BJP, Mittal was made the deputy leader of AAP in the Upper House.
Mittal’s association with AAP ended days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided his residence and several premises linked to the Lovely Group in Phagwara and Jalandhar. The action was taken in connection with a money-laundering probe under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Mittal joined the BJP on 24 April this year.
Ever-expanding LPU
“My friend had suggested that I can set up a sweets shop here since some industrialist was setting up a university here. That is how I got to know about LPU and started my sweets shop next to it,” says Baljinder Singh, whose shop is nearly two decades old now. Singh, who is 57, says that when he first set up the shop, there were just three or four stalls around. “A tea stall, another sold paratha, and two more stalls, including mine,” he said. But in the past two decades the locality has completely changed.
Lagging far behind in development and fame of neighbouring cities like Jalandhar and Amritsar, the LPU area of Phagwara now has a commercial buzz to it, and is dotted by outlets of various brands catering to the needs of students. A stone’s throw away are food stalls for students from Bengal, Telangana, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, and even from African countries.
“My son had enrolled at LPU in 2017, and for the first time set up an Andhra food stall inside the campus. We used to then just make vegetarian tiffins for students. Enthused by the response, we started a stall in 2019 outside the campus serving meat dishes,” says Mahesh, owner of Foodie Lover, an Andhra food outlet. Right next to Mahesh’s stall is Mohammad’s Shop, advertised in two languages—English and Bangla.
“My uncle was a contract worker inside LPU and I used to assist him. Now for the past eight years I have been selling Calcutta biryani, mostly to Bengali and Bangladeshi students,” says Nazib, the owner of Mohammad’s Shop.
Diversity has accompanied development in these Phagwara villages. The locality around the university is a mini-township with salons, medicine shops, shoe repair shops, and automobile workshops rubbing shoulders with McDonalds, Burger King and KFC. The inevitable housing crisis has been resolved by the colourful and modern gated colonies nearby, with paying guest (PG) accommodations readily available.
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Cultural clash
The growing demand for housing and a social life in LPU’s student community has been matched by the entrepreneurial spirit of villagers. “LPU has given us jobs, and business opportunities. Villagers have got jobs according to their qualification, from security guards to professors,” says Binder Singh Ruchi, also a PG owner.
The 55-year-old says that over time the growing campus has eaten into farmland and has been inching closer and closer to the residential area of the villages. “Most of the villages around the college campus have opened their homes to students in the form of PGs. It has brought business, but the orthodoxy of villagers has clashed with the modern outlook of students,” he says.
Maheru Sarpanch Rani is more focused on the clash between tradition and modernity. The 57-year-old village leader says that the clash is between vastly different cultures.
“The students burn crackers on birthdays, loiter in the village lanes all night, wear revealing clothes, and the women drink and smoke. This is a cultural shock for us villagers which has been forced on us. We don’t want our children to grow up seeing this,” Rani says. These clashes, she says, have caused a great deal of animosity between the students and villagers living around the university.
The LPU protest
The two-decade old university made headlines last week after its students blocked the vital NH 44 highway, demanding a fair probe into an alleged sexual assault case within the campus. The matter began with a Reddit post, which alleged that a student was sexually assaulted in the past week by a contractual worker inside a girl’s hostel (GH), and that the university authorities had attempted to hide the matter.
On Saturday, students began a protest demanding fair probe and transparency. Taking cognisance of the growing protest, the Punjab Police registered a FIR against unknown persons, without any mention of who the victim was.
The protest turned violent on Sunday after LPU’s gates were breached, and a mob ransacked several buildings, setting them ablaze. On Monday morning, charred buildings, broken tiles and signboards told the story of a violent night. The Punjab Police then stationed a large number of personnel, including paramilitary forces, to guard the gates of the varsity.
Meanwhile, students in large numbers were seen leaving the college campus with backpacks and suitcases for their homes. The student exodus began on Monday morning when college authorities declared 10 days off while postponing mid-term exams.
Rumour and anxiety
Soon after the protest subsided and students began to retreat, rumours started doing the rounds across the campus. Students could be heard whispering among themselves about alleged suicides inside the university—claims that remained entirely unsubstantiated. Yet, as the murmurs grew louder, they added to the sense of fear and uncertainty hanging over the campus.
No one seems certain of details, yet almost every student has a suicide story to tell. “She was a friend of a friend and when she died, they moved her body immediately without even a condolence note,” says one LPU student on condition of anonymity.
Another student said that suicide cases were far too frequent inside the campus but nobody speaks about them fearing adverse action. “I don’t remember her room number, but I had heard about her death from a friend who lived in the same GH. None of her friends were given a moment to say goodbye to her or offer prayers. Overnight the body was removed and her roommates sent home,” the student says.
While rumours and resentments grew inside the campus, students leaving the premises expressed fear for their future. “The college authorities have asked us to leave but nobody knows what implications the protest or this incident will have once we are back on campus,” says Aditi, an LPU student.
Meanwhile, Drishti, another student at LPU says she fears for the upcoming academic calendar. “I am in the CSE department whose building has been entirely burnt. Will all be fixed in 10 days and ready for us to resume academics?” she asks.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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