PU Senate Election Demand Spirals Into Panjab Staking Claim on Chandigarh

On 8 Nov, Panjab University, Chandigarh Registrar Prof Yajvender Pal Verma issued an order barring outsiders from entering the campus and prohibiting their participation in protests. The diktat mandates that only those carrying university identity cards and vehicle stickers would be allowed entry. The students of the university had given an open call to gather on 10 Nov for a rally demanding the schedule of Senate elections. On 9 Nov, university alumni, leaders from all political parties except Bharatiya Janata Party, Sikh religious bodies, farmer unions, and student organizations poured onto the campus pledging solidarity. As Panjabis started bringing in food for langar (community kitchen), mattresses for people to sleep in, Chandigarh police closed all the entry points into the city. This irked the people of Panjab. They asked, how can a city which was built by destroying 26 villages of Panjab now deny entry to the people of Panjab? In 1966, when Panjab was trifurcated with Hindi speaking areas forming Haryana and some going to Himachal Pradesh, the promise was that Chandigarh is Panjab’s capital. But close to sixty years later, Chandigarh is still a Union territory and a shared capital between Panjab and Haryana. On 10 Nov, thousands of people from Panjab broke barricades installed on the Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (SAS Nagar)–Chandigarh border and entered the city creating massive traffic jams that lasted hours. As they reached the university gates, they found them locked. The Chandigarh police and the Panjab police detained some protesters, even manhandled them. This angered the people and they smashed the police barricades and the two gates to reach the venue of the protest in front of the University Vice Chancellor’s home. People brought in tractors which are normally banned in Chandigarh into the university. The rally was peaceful and except for injuries the police inflicted, there was no other incidence of violence. It had the resonance of the Farmers Protest 1.0 (2020–21). The emotion on ground is that Chandigarh belongs to Panjab and this issue might become a major plank for political parties when Panjab goes in for state Assembly elections in early 2027 (earlier coverage).