Wardha University: Indefinite hunger strike of six suspended students, what is the whole matter
Author, Bhagyashree Raut
Designation for BBC News Marathi
Published 3 minutes ago
Reading Time: 5 minutes
Six students of Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University located in Wardha, Maharashtra were suspended.
Now all of them have sat on an indefinite hunger strike outside the District Magistrate's office demanding cancellation of their suspension and withdrawal of the FIR registered against them.
These students include students from Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Of these, three students are from Scheduled Caste, while three are from OBC.
An FIR was registered against these six students for protesting outside the administrative building of the university by locking it on August 20. After this, he was suspended on 1 September.
The university has formed an independent inquiry committee to investigate the matter and the investigation is ongoing.
The demands for which the students had protested earlier were accepted by the university administration. But later these students were suspended.
A total of 250 students took part in the movement. This action has been taken against only six of these students.
The students have warned that their agitation will continue until the FIR is withdrawn.
Skip to Most Read Skip to content
most read
finished
Among the suspended students, two Shivpuran Singh Pasi (Prayagraj) and Ramchandra (Budenlakhand area) are residents of UP.
While three students Rajesh Kumar Yadav (Siwan), Niranjan Oberoi (Gaya) and Rahul Kumar Thakur (Buxar) are from Bihar.
Apart from this, Rakesh Ahirwar is a resident of Chhatarpur district in Madhya Pradesh.
Why did the need for demonstration arise?
skip ahead podcast
Dinbhar: Same voice, new style
Big news from the country and the world that made headlines.
episode
finished
Students say that they have been submitting memorandums to the administration regarding their various demands for the last four years. But their demands were repeatedly ignored.
To fulfill these demands, students also launched a signature campaign. Even after this no action was taken.
Then on July 8, eight-ten students sat on strike. They say that admissions to PhD are closed from 2022.
Two departments of the university – Film Studies and Women Studies, have been transferred to other universities.
The protesting students demand that these departments should be brought back to Wardha University.
Many days have passed since the movement started. The month of August also ended. Despite this, no action was taken on this.
During this period, due to the agitation, the university continued functioning by keeping the doors of the administrative building closed. Students say that this had an impact on them.
They were not allowed to enter the administrative building. The documents they needed were also not being provided by the administration.
Students say that during this period the condition of the mess also deteriorated.
The condition of the mess in which about 700 students eat has deteriorated.
Students claimed that 'insects were also found in the food.'
The students had given a letter to the university administration on August 19 demanding that the doors of the administrative building be opened.
Along with this, he had also warned of agitation on 20th August.
When 250 students locked the admin block
The effect of all these incidents was visible on 20 August. That day 250 students joined the movement.
Some of these students locked the administration block from outside. The university says that due to this all the employees were stuck inside the building for four hours.
After this the university lodged an FIR against six out of 250 students. A case was registered against him under sections 126(2), 221 and 3(5) of the Indian Judicial Code.
On September 1, these six students were suspended.
Rahul Kumar, who was among the suspended students, told BBC News Marathi, "We were not getting basic facilities, so we protested. But after the suspension, we were directly thrown out of the university."
"We were not even allowed to collect our belongings. Now after the agitation, the university has accepted almost all our demands. The university has accepted that our demands were genuine. Then why were we suspended?"
He said, “We will continue our indefinite hunger strike until the university cancels the FIR and withdraws our suspension.”
Meanwhile, Cockroach Janata Party founder Abhijeet Deepke met the agitating students and discussed the issue.
The university accepted the demands
As per the demand of the students, the administration has decided to restart both the departments of Women Studies and Film Studies in Wardha Hindi University.
Along with this, the admission process for PhD has also been started.
BS Mirge, head of public relations of Wardha Hindi University, told BBC News Marathi that the PhD admission process for 2022-23 has been completed.
He said that the admission process for the new session will also be started.
University's side on suspension order
The university says that the students had agitated inside the administrative building on July 8 without any permission. This disrupted office work.
The university has also said that on August 20, the administrative building was locked from outside. Due to this, all the employees remained locked inside for four hours.
The university has clarified that an FIR has been registered against the students who led the movement.
An independent inquiry committee has been formed to investigate. This committee will investigate the entire incident. This suspension will continue until the investigation is completed.
The university says that the final decision on the suspension of students will be taken after the investigation committee's report comes.
Prakash Ambedkar criticized
