Two Years after Protest, 11 Pondy Uni Students Debarred For Fighting Fee Hike

Last week, 11 Pondicherry University (PU) students received punishment notices from the administration for participating in a protest nearly two years ago. The students were part of the Occupy Admin Block protest in February 2020, which was part of the ‘Fee Must Fall’ movement.

The punishment order states that the students are prohibited from taking admission in any course offered by the university for the next five years. They are also debarred from entering the campus during the five-year period. Additionally, a fine of Rs 10,000 is imposed on each one of them, without which they will not receive their degree certificates.

Such an extreme step by the administration has unsettled the students, and the Students’ Council immediately condemned the action. Debarring individual students from the campus and imposing a fine for participating in a protest “is curbing our fundamental right to protest” read the Council’s statement dated December 24.

Opposing the attack on students, an all-party protest was held on December 27, in which members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and others participated.

CPI(M), DMK, VCK and other parties condemn the action against students

WHAT HAPPENED?

The Fee Must Fall Movement began in 2018 in the Pondicherry University when the administration took the decision to make exorbitant hikes to tuition fees, without taking students into consideration. Several rounds of memorandum submission, agitations, hunger strikes and other forms of protests were held by the students demanding the administration to recall the move to hike the fee. In most courses, the fee was hiked up to 100%, and in some others even more.

As part of the movement, an ‘Occupy Administration Block’ call was given by the Students' Council in February 2020, when students gheraoed the Vice-Chancellor office.

Parichay Yadav, the President of the Pondicherry University Students’ Council said “On February 6, 2020 we gave a call to Occupy Admin Block and hundreds of students gathered. But we were told the VC was not on campus, later we realised we were lied to and the VC was in his cabin. When the VC tried to ignore us and leave his office, we tried to gherao him, which is a very common form of protest. But he gave no answer to our pleas and left with the help of the police.”

Pondicherry University students during a Fee Must Fall protest

Abhivad, one of the students who was served a show-cause notice for participation in the protest said, “We expected the administration would resort to some action back in 2020 itself because we know the admin uses these kinds of tactics to scare students. However, the fight was taken up legally so we didn’t see this coming.”

He added, “If we indulged in unruly and unlawful behaviour, as the administration claims, they would have brought the police on us and filed cases against us, but that did not happen.”

NEARLY 2 YEARS AFTER PROTESTS

Most of the 11 students who have received the punishment notices have completed their course and passed out of the university. Therefore, action against these students is viewed by the Students’ Council as a move solely to threaten the student community by targeting individual students and curbing the fundamental right to protest.

Protest held on December 24 condemning the punishments

Parichay said, “The show-cause notice accusing students came out one and a half years after the protest. The admin sent it out so late assuming the scope for mobilising students against their move would be difficult.”

The show-cause notice was sent out on August 25. The Students’ Council statement reads “during the peak Covid period in 2021, when all of us were struggling with the loss of loved ones and immense financial and mental hardship, the university served 11 students who participated in a protest, a show-cause notice.”

The punishments are seen as being part of other adverse steps taken by the University administration attacking campus democracy and freedom of movement. Parichay said “Once the campus reopened after the pandemic imposed lockdowns, more CCTVs cameras were installed on campus and there were new curfews in place for the hostels, this is the kind of tactics they are using to suppress the students.”

Abhivad said, “Campus is reopening on January 14, new students would be coming in and the administration wants to threaten them by dishing out punishment notices now. They want to create a rupture in the student politics on campus, and shut us up.”

The Students’ Council is not ready to budge. They are fixed on going ahead with two-fold demands: restore campus democracy and fees must fall.

These demands are not restricted to Pondicherry University, government underspending on education and a right-wing government in the Centre have resulted in large-scale attacks on public institutions and are accompanied by strong student movements.