New Delhi: An undertaking was taken from about 300 foreign students of the Gujarat University’s Study Abroad Programme (SAP) gagging them from approaching the media or the police without taking permission from the administration.According to the Indian Express, the students were asked not to approach the media or police after several of them complained of “unhygienic, cramped accommodation” provided to them. The directive warns that “engagement with any outer agency like media or police without prior permission of Gujarat University authorities shall invite immediate expulsion for violating the code of conduct from university/colleges and deportment to their country”.Most of the students are from South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation(SAARC) and African countries.In September last year, the university also shifted 35 students from Afghanistan – against their wishes – to a Muslim-dominated because of “their eating habits and culture”. The students have been residing Lal Darwaja, about 10 km from the campus in Ahmedabad.SAP and Diaspora Studies advisor and coordinator Neerja Gupta admitted that the students were shifted due to their “eating habits, community and culture”. “The (Afghan) students staying at the Lal Darwaja facility are mostly, in fact, all are Muslims. So, looking at their eating habits, community and culture they are put up there. There were attempts to provide a hostel facility in the western parts of the city but we received complaints from both students and neighbours about their habits of eating non-vegetarian food. The students also complained that they do not get non-vegetarian food easily. So these facilities were shut down,” she told Indian Express.Also Read: Assimilation and Racism: Bengaluru’s International Student Community on Wanting to BelongShe also claimed that the the gag order issued to the foreign students was “necessary”. She claimed there wasa “false report” about hostel conditions of boys flats (known as Information and Library Network, INFLIBNET) in a local channel in a local news channel. “Students do not understand the consequences of such a thing but it tarnishes the image of our country,” Gupta claimed said.The 300 students are enrolled in the Gujarat University’s departments and around nine affiliated colleges in and around Ahmedabad. Three hostels are provided — one for girls and two for boys — by the university to accommodate these students, said Gupta.According to the Indian Express, a resident of the INFLIBNET block was disappointed about the condition of the hostels. “This is really not what we had expected before coming here,” the student said.The newspaper also reports:At one Gujarat University hostel, students are accommodated in a two-storey building with 16 rooms on each floor. Three women are crammed in one poorly-ventilated dingy room with little storage space, no canteen, proper drinking water or even toilets.Students said that complaints about the conditions were not heard and the students were threatened against approaching any other authority. An Afghan student, staying near Lal Darwaja, said if provided a hostel near the college, they would not eat non-vegetarian food.In 2016, foreign students studying in the Kendriya Hindi Santhan in Agra also complained about the “pitiful” conditions of their hostels. News reports said several students were planning to leave the course due to the unhygienic conditions and an indifferent attitude from the administration. The administration claimed that the conditions were comfortable and foreign students were complaining only because of the lack of non-vegetarian food in the canteen.Also Read: Purity, Pollution and the Drive to Turn IIT Bombay into a Modern AgraharamEven in prestigious institutions such as the IITs, reports of (Indian) students eating non-vegetarian food being discriminated against have been reported. In February last year, the IIT Bombay asked students to use “separate plates” to ear non-vegetarian food.Writing for The Wire, Anand Teltumbde said it was a “blatant attempt to reinstate the concept of purity and pollution that has historically been the rationale for the caste system”.In December last year, a similar controversy erupted in IIT Madras, when students uploaded photos of posters that asked non-vegetarian students to enter the canteen separately and use separate utensils. “What started as a demand for “pure” vegetarian mess has become full-fledged untouchability,” the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle commented.