Hyderabad: Students of Moulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) have demanded the university authorities to immediately conduct the elections of the Students Union. Voicing concern over the cancellation of the elections originally scheduled on September 24, they say there is no reason for delaying the polls.
On September 20, the University authorities announced cancellation of the exams. Prof M.A. Azeem, Chief Returning Officer, MSU Elections 2024-25, stated that in view of the prevailing situation and unrest in the MANUU campus, MANUU administration has decided to cancel the MSU 2024-25 elections at the headquarters and all of the campus.
The elections for the office bearers and members of the executive committee of MANUU Student’s Union 2024-25 was scheduled on September 24.
A section of students believe that the administration wants to deliberately delay the polls. They found fault with the administration for using the word ‘unrest’, saying the recent protest by students was totally peaceful. They also condemned the attempts by the university authorities to threaten the students by involving the police and local administration.
They cited a statement issued by the university authorities on September 22. The university appealed to the students to maintain normalcy on the campus by attending classes as scheduled and pursuing their research work, etc., for smooth sailing of the semester.
According to the statement issued by the Registrar, MANUU administration observed that a handful of students have been trying to disrupt the normal life of campus in general and hostels in particular. “It is also reported through students community, that a few students are deliberately creating fake videos, photos and news with mala-fide intentions and circulating in social media to malign the reputation of the university and creating issues in the hostel and mess. It is decided by the University that such videos, photos, news will be referred to the Cybercrime police for further investigation and suitable action shall be taken in the interest of the University,” reads the statement.
It also warned that if any disruption continues, the university will be left with no other option but to switch over to the online mode of teaching for the remaining duration of the ongoing odd semester-2024, all hostels will be closed and students will be asked to vacate the hostels.
Talha Mannan, who is contesting for the post of the president of the Students Union from the panel of Azad United Students Federation (AUSF), said the university authorities failed to handle the protest by students over the poor quality of food in hostels. He said instead of addressing the genuine concerns of the students and meeting their demands, the university called police and paramilitary forces to the campus.
He voiced concern that the university administration is closing the window of engaging with the students by not holding the elections. He believes that the administration wants the tenure of the Students Union to be as short as possible.
Mannan pointed out that the previous students union was there for only 82 days and it was dissolved by the university administration. He demanded that the university continue the previous union at least till conduct of the elections so that it can engage with the students to address a situation like the one created recently by the students’ protest.
Mannan, who’s pursuing PhD, alleged that some people both in the administration and among students, do not want the campus to be politically vibrant. “They want to keep students confined to minor issues and do not want the campus to be politically sensitised on key issues,” he said and recalled that MANUU was one of the institutions which led the movement against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
On September 19, students staged a protest over being served substandard food in the boys hostel. They alleged that when the matter was taken to the notice of the authorities concerned, they misbehaved with students. This further angered the protestors and led to resignation of the provost of the boy’s hostel, Yusuf Khan.
Students at the girls hostel also staged the protest over poor quality of food and demanded resignation of girls hostel provost Sameena Basu. They also wanted Proctor Prof Abdul Azeem to give a written apology and resign.
Later, a committee of senior students held talks with the University authorities and placed their demands. On their demand, police force was withdrawn from the campus. The committee also demanded that there should be no disciplinary action against students who participated in the protest. The students also wanted the elections of Students Union to be conducted as scheduled.
However, the administration cancelled the elections and warned the students that if the disruption continues it will be forced to close all hostels and switch to online mode of teaching.
