PU Defuses Possible Confrontation; Parts of Missing Trollies Found

Panjab University (PU) administration had promised the striking students that they shall announce the schedule of the Senate elections on 25 Nov. If that does not happen, the students from the PU Bachao Morcha (Save PU Front)—backed by more than 50 student unions, employee bodies, social groups, farmer and labor unions—announced that the campus will observe a complete shutdown on 26 Nov, the 25^th day of the protest. The Front said, just like on 10 Nov, no administrative, academic or other functioning will be allowed. The students say the Indian union government’s now-withdrawn attempt to reconstitute PU’s governing bodies must be seen in the larger context of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which is accelerating privatization, centralization, and saffronization of public universities. On 21 Nov, the PU Registrar Yajvender Pal Verma said he and other officials were going to Delhi to meet with the Union Education Ministry and the PU Chancellor—the Vice President of India Chandrapuram Ponnusamy Radhakrishnan. Later, PU notified all its teaching and non-teaching staff that they must attend the university on 26 Nov. However, on 25 Nov evening, in a climbdown, PU declared 26 Nov a holiday to avoid a confrontation with the students. Concurrently, a letter from 2007 has surfaced in which former Panjab Chief Minister from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Parkash Singh Badal wrote to the Ministry of Human Development, Government of India that the Panjab state has ‘no objection’ to PU being converted into a Central University. This contradicts SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal’s recent pro-PU stance. In another development, missing parts of trollies stolen after Farmers Protest 2.0 (2023–24) were evicted have been found buried in the official residence of the Executive Officer (EO) of Nabha Municipal Council. EO Gursharan Singh has said Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Pankaj Kumar Pappu, who is a husband of Municipal Council chief Sujata Chawla, had occupied his home. The recovery of trolley parts strengthens allegations by farmers that the ruling AAP government had a role in the theft of trollies (earlier coverage).