An unresolved dispute over student elections prompted Jamia Millia Islamia to move all courses online on Oct. 24, as the university cited campus conditions and safety during the protest’s 13th day.
Jamia said the online-class order took effect immediately. The Indian Express reported that the university had not announced a date for in-person classes to resume.
The protest began Oct. 12. By Oct. 24, five students were on hunger strike. The Indian Express reported that three people had faced disciplinary action and that students want those measures withdrawn. The newspaper also reported students are seeking the removal of the university’s chief proctor and security adviser.
The central demand is an election schedule for the Jamia Millia Islamia Students’ Union (JMISU). The Indian Express reported that the last union elections were held in 2005. Jamia says the union was dissolved in 2006 after earlier campus violence, attacks on teachers and disruptions to classes.
Jamia said it created a seven-member committee on Oct. 18 to engage with students and consider their demands. On Oct. 21, it announced a separate committee to draft a union constitution and review court orders and Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. Students told The Indian Express that the drafting work did not answer their immediate request for an election date.
Accounts of the confrontation at the protest site differ. Haneena Bint Omar, a third-year law student, told The Indian Express that university officials tried to take down the protesters’ tents and get hunger strikers to a hospital. Jamia’s Oct. 24 statement says guards, staff and teachers had asked protesters to leave the site before protesters pushed them.
The dispute also drew visits from Congress lawmakers. The New Indian Express and NDTV Profit reported that Registrar Mahtab Alam Rizvi blamed visits by Imran Pratapgarhi and Imran Masood for adding to campus tensions. NDTV Profit separately reported Rizvi alleged the MPs entered the campus by jumping a wall. The Indian Express reported that no date had been set for a return to in-person classes.
