RSF Against Repression in the University of Punjab, India
Revolutionary Students’ Front (RSF) recently condemned the moves of the BJP-RSS government and the Punjab University administration to attack the student movement and dissent. The Senate and the Syndicate, highest elected governing bodies, and their replacement has been directly appointed by the administration, representing that a sort “of a coup against academic autonomy”.
RSF denounces more movements such as the “abolition of the graduates’ constituency, the elimination of elections, and the concentration of power in the hands of the Vice-Chancellor and the Centre’s nominees” as a part of the attacks against the university democracy. The first-year students are also forced “to sign an undertaking that bars them from participating in campus protests”. This movement comes after that the students stood with the peasantry of Punjab and Haryana during the strong protests that took place recently. There are movements not just against the democracy in the university but also against the student solidarity with the democratic and peasant struggles.
RSF reports that “these moves are integral to the larger project of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 – a policy designed to privatize and saffronize education.” (‘saffronized’ is a reference to the nationalist Hindutva policies which the old Indian State wants to apply in many areas, among others, in the education). In that sense, the old Indian State wants to keep peace in the universities, by repressing all the dissenting voices, either against the measures in education or in solidarity with other movements and struggles.
RSF stands in solidarity with the protesting students, that now have announced an indefinite protest outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office. RSF also calls “upon all progressive, democratic and leftist organizations, students and teachers to unitedly stand in solidarity with the struggling students of Punjab University and resist this fascist assault on Punjab University, as well as on education.” and demands to repeal the anti-democratic and anti-student laws.
