India Withdraws Order on PU Senate Changes; Protest for Elections Continue

On 8 Nov, amid sustained political backlash in Panjab and ongoing protests at Panjab University (PU), the Indian Union Ministry of Education withdrew its notification to restructure the Senate and Syndicate, effectively restoring the earlier governance system of the 143-year-old institution. This is only the second time in the current regime’s 12-year-long tenure that they have withdrawn an order. The first time was during the Farmers Protest 1.0 (2020–21). A new notification issued by the union government, under Section 72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, rescinded the 4 Nov notification, which had announced governance reforms but said that the same would come into force on a future date. The original notification announcing the reforms came on 28 Oct but was withdrawn subsequently. The students welcomed the announcement but said that the protest would continue. Student Front leader Raman Singh Mandher said, 'Nothing really changes on the ground for us. The university still doesn’t have a senate, and this whole back-and-forth on the notifications, withdrawals, and confusion has completely eroded students’ faith in the Center’s intentions. The call for the university shutdown on 10 Nov stands.' The university claims it has written to the Vice President of India—Chancellor of the University—for permission to conduct elections for the senate. However, while the notification has been withdrawn for four days now, the schedule for the Senate elections has not been published. On 9 Nov, when various political parties and others came to the protest site in solidarity, the students questioned Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Members of Parliament Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer and Malvinder Singh Kang. AAP has met the Governor of Panjab Gulab Chand Kataria seeking withdrawal of notification. AAP also proposes to bring in a bill in the Panjab Assembly. However, the reality on the ground is that the election schedule has not been published. This is typical of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) promises: they dither in fulfilling them and let protests fester hoping they will wither away. BJP also claims it has given PU USD 365M since 2014, AAP says only USD 60M has been received.