New Delhi: The impasse between the students and administration of Jamia Millia Islamia continued on Monday (October 26), with students accusing the administration of “manipulation”. Students also claim that vice-chancellor Mazhar Asif is trying to control the narrative surrounding their protest and managing news emerging from the campus.Students at Jamia have been on hunger strike since October 12, demanding student union elections be conducted within 15 days.Monday proved to be a day of high drama on campus. A notice issued by the registrar’s office at 4:15 am stated that:The Jamia Millia Islamia Students Union elections will be held after 15 days from the date of approval of the constitution of the students’ union of the university.Suspension and show-cause notices issued to students will be revoked.A committee will be constituted to enquire into the actions of the security staff during the period of protest.The notice was issued along with a letter signed by students, stating the time as 3:08 am. While the notice suggested that an agreement had been reached, agitating students rejected this. One of the main points of disagreement is the rider that the elections are contingent on the approval of the constitution, and that there is no timeline provided for that.“We know the notice carries our signatures, but they have manipulated us. They have not agreed to the main points. They are not agreeing to conduct the elections within 15 days and they are also not ready to release a deadline for the formation of the constitution,” said Ebil Basil, one of the students on hunger strike.Police barricades on the gates of Jamia Millia Islamia. Photo: Seemi PashaBasil, an NSUI member, also claimed that the administration was trying to mislead the student community as far as revoking disciplinary action against agitating students was concerned.“They say that suspension and show-cause notices issued to students will be revoked but they are not talking about those facing rustication and campus ban. I have been rusticated for one year and in Jasim’s case, he was given six months of campus ban. They are not ready to revoke all the disciplinary action,” he continued.Basil rejected the administration’s demand for a public apology and claimed they were trying to discredit the agitation: “They made us sign that at 3 am when we had been woken up from our sleep, pressurised and manipulated.”What followed was a day of angry protest, with several students trying to break open the university gates.At around 10:30 pm, the administration issued what it called ‘A Final Notice’ threatening agitating students with disciplinary and legal action. The notice seemed to suggest that the protesters were divided and that while some students had decided to ‘happily’ call off their protest on Monday morning, others were refusing to relent.The “truce” offered by the administration on Monday morning was similar to another notice that had already been rejected by the students. On October 21, the vice-chancellor had approved a committee to draft the constitution of the Jamia Millia Islamia Students Union by December 20. Students had rejected the offer, insisting that the drafting committee did not need two months.“The biggest hurdle for us is that the administration keeps saying that there is no constitution to form the union. They asked us for time till December 20. Winter break starts around the same time and then it will be Ramzan, where a lot of students will be fasting. These are simply delaying tactics,” said Mantasha, a postgraduate student at the university.The final notice from the chief proctor’s office, issued to students to vacate the north campus of Jamia Millia Islamia.“We asked them to include the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee or allow us to draft the constitution ourselves. We can draft the body of the constitution in a week, and they can suggest whatever changes they like. The process should not take two months,” she added.“This is not a new university. We had elections in 2006. We have that constitution. They can modify that. Why do they need to draft a new constitution?” asked Mohammad Athnan, who recently completed his LLB from Jamia.University actions seen as an attack on studentsStudents at Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university in the national capital, said that the administration’s decision to shut down the campus mid-semester was nothing short of an attack.On October 24, university gates were barricaded, classes were moved online, and students were asked to vacate hostels.On October 25, students who were trying to enter the campus were detained by Delhi Police and CRPF personnel. They said they were manhandled, mistreated and taken to different thanas, without being able to contact each other for several hours. Section 163 of the BNSS remains enforced around the campus area.The tense situation brought back memories of the December 2019 Delhi Police crackdown on Jamia students who were protesting the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 in parliament. The police brutality had left students with broken limbs and injured eyes.What prompted the protest?The trigger for the agitation came on October 9, when Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) announced students’ union elections following a 19-day hunger strike by students. Student union elections will now be held in AMU after a gap of eight years.Encouraged by the result of the student’s agitation in AMU, students of Jamia Millia Islamia announced an indefinite hunger strike on October 12. Jamia had dissolved its student’s union in 2006 citing campus violence and administrative disputes.“It started with four students staging a hunger strike, but soon hundreds of students joined the agitation,” said a student who did not wish to be named. The same student added:“Students started dropping in after class and sitting near the Ghalib statue. The administration made no attempts to reach out to the students. Of course, they realised that the protest was gaining strength because our dean started saying that there is active surveillance on campus and disciplinary action will be taken against those who are recognised as part of the movement.”Students claim the university administration studied the protest closely, realising that numbers grew after 5 PM, when classes ended, and started dwindling after 2 am when the library closed. On October 17, the agitating students were set to take out a peace march around the campus, but the administration sent security guards to dismantle the protest at 5:30 am.Students claim that the security guards “kicked” those who were sitting on hunger strike, dragged them away and even manhandled female students.Also read: Jamia Millia Islamia Students Protest RSS Centenary Event, University ‘Responds With Force’As news of the crackdown spread, students started gathering outside Gate Number 7 in large numbers. A tussle between students and security guards ended with several students forcibly entering the campus and restoring their protest site. The administration then reportedly instructed the university guards to drag the students out of the campus and handed them over to Delhi Police personnel waiting outside the gate. The students were detained but set free the same evening.Did the vice-chancellor engineer a students versus faculty showdown?On October 23 at 10:38 pm, the vice-chancellor called for an urgent meeting of all permanent teaching and non-teaching staff members, via email. The meeting was scheduled for the next day, October 24, at 11:30 am at Ansari Auditorium and attendance was made mandatory. The agenda for the meeting was not shared.There were so many people that the venue had to be shifted to the lawns outside Ansari Auditorium. After the meeting, the registrar and vice-chancellor led the teachers in what was meant to be a peaceful dialogue at the protest site.Students jostle during their protest, saying an outsider from an armed police force had entered their protest and tried to sabotage it. (By arrangment.)“Suddenly some members of the administration and a few teachers got into an altercation with the students. A few members of the administration brought the canopy over the protest site down,” said a faculty member who did not wish to be named.Neville Thomas, a PhD scholar at the university, described what happened:“They started destroying the protest site. No one called them. They came for negotiation and then they started intimidating us. In the middle of the democratic dialogue, they started dismantling the protest site. They said that we pushed them, it is all lies. They pushed the students, guards started dragging students away, male professors and non-teaching staff were attacking female students and physically harming them. Students were hit by professors and non-teaching staff.”In a statement, the university’s chief public relations officer claimed that the students “continued chanting slogans, shouting that the faculty should “go back” and suddenly began pushing security guards, staff and teachers, refusing to heed to repeated appeals from senior faculty members, even after their demands had been met earlier this week”.The varsity teachers, however, issued a statement under the umbrella of ‘Concerned Faculty of Jamia Millia Islamia’, countering the administration’s version of events:“We, on behalf of the entire teaching staff of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, condemn the deceptive and manipulative conduct of the university administration by the use of teaching and non-teaching staff, brought in under the pretext of a compulsory meeting, as a show of force against their own students and trying to drive a wedge between faculty and students. We were led to believe by the administration that they were going to accept all of the protesters’ demands, and that the march was meant to persuade students to end their protest to restore normalcy in the campus.Using us as a tool of pressure against our own students misrepresents our position and damages the trust and mutual respect that define the relationship between students and teachers at this university. We reject this attempt to divide us and affirm that our concern lies with the wellbeing of our students and the integrity of this institution.”Vice-chancellor accused of pushing RSS ideologyStudents and faculty members believe that there is a larger design at play. They have accused vice-chancellor Mazhar Asif of playing into the hands of the RSS and trying to discredit and delegitimise the student protests on campus.“We don’t know who has put up the graffiti. The administration has acquired a reputation of trying to defame the protest. Students are fighting for their democratic rights,” said Thomas, responding to the sudden appearance of ‘Free Kashmir’ graffiti on campus.“Last night we saw a person raising objectionable slogans in front of TV cameras. He was pretending to be a part of the students’ protest. We caught hold of him and found an ITBP identity card on him. He also had his ITBP uniform in his bag. Please tell me why someone from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police was masquerading as a student on campus and trying to create trouble?” he continued.Screenshot of video taken at Jamia protest, of students claiming they found an ITBP uniform and identity card on one of the ‘protesters’. (By arrangment.)Students claim that the administration does not want to give any representation to students. A students’ union would provide them with a legitimate platform for organising events to invite thinkers and academicians.“Right now, only the administration has the right to organise events. We have no platform. Like last month, the administration organised centenary celebrations for the RSS on campus. They did it very discreetly in Ansari auditorium. The VC and registrar were present, but the event had not been advertised,” Thomas said.Students feel there is a concerted effort being made to push the ideology of the RSS into a university that has a minority character.“The administration, instead of calling academics, has been inviting speakers from organisations affiliated to the Sangh. BJP leaders and NDA leaders are being invited for talks. Only one-sided narrative is being inducted into the university. The vice-chancellor says we all have Mahadev’s DNA in us. Such an ideologically loaded statement is being pushed on to the university,” said Thomas.Also read: ‘Akhand Bharat Dance’, ‘Sanskrit Qawwali’ and Delhi Police Songs: Celebrations at Jamia“Having a students’ union is a very simple demand. There is nothing revolutionary about it. It is a basic constitutional right. It is written in the constitution of Jamia. The current state has no tolerance for resistance from marginalised voices coming from a minority institution,” said Niranjan, an LLB student who received his final marks last week.At the time of publishing of this article, the students of Jamia Millia Islamia were still sitting on hunger strike demanding that they be allowed to hold elections for a students’ union like Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and almost all other universities in India.The Wire has reached out to the vice-chancellor and PRO of Jamia to ask about their responses to the students’ demands and allegations. This article will be updated when a response is received.Seemi Pasha is an independent journalist and filmmaker based in Delhi.