9 yrs on, campus democracy eludes Jamia Millia Islamia

At a time when the poll process for electing new student representatives is gaining momentum at Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, students of Jamia Millia Islamia are still fighting for 

their demand for reinstating the students union, scrapped nine years ago.

Jamia Millia Islamia students have written to the Vice-Chancellor and the University Grants Commission repeatedly since elections were “banned” in the university in 2006 after the students' union allegedly “started interfering with the administrative matters of the institution”.

Challenging the university directive, three students had moved the Delhi High Court in 2011 and the matter is still pending.

The students alleged that their democratic rights were being curtailed and there was just one-way communication between them and the administration, and demanded that instead of eliminating the whole process, the varsity should allow political activism among students in a manner that did not in any way affect academic activities.

“A fear psychosis has been created on the campus. In democratic India, an undemocratic university is being created.

Our legal, fundamental human rights are being suppressed,” a student said on the condition of anonymity.

Another student said, “this 'school headmaster' approach towards running a university has become sort of a norm which helps the administration in suppressing differences in views and opinions, and to scuttle any structure representative of the students voice”.