Students sink differences for safe campus

Lucknow: Eight former presidents of the Lucknow University Students’ Union (LUSU) on Wednesday cut across their political lines and came together to express concern at the “turning of the campus into a torture chamber” and “save democracy”.

The former student leaders said that they wanted the elections to students’ union to be held at the earliest and admission must be given to students on the basis of merit.

The former student leaders said that if the university administration did not give up its rigid attitude and restore normalcy on the campus within three weeks, they would jointly launch an agitation.

“It is improper to deny admission to certain students simply because they subscribe to another political ideology. The Supreme Court has ruled that ‘no punitive action which creates obstacles in the future education of a student should be taken’. We want the Lucknow University authorities to initiate a dialogue with students and allow democratic rights to flourish”, said Mr Atul Kumar Singh Anjaan, national secretary of CPI and a former LUSU president.

Senior Congress leader Satyadev Tripathi, also a former LUSU president, said that tolerance was the essence of democracy and showing black flags was a democratic right of students.

It may be recalled that 21 students who had shown black flags to chief minister Yogi Adityanath on the campus last year, were arrested and sent to jail and later rusticated. The students are now being denied admission which led to violence on July 4 and teaching work was suspended thereafter.