Chandigarh, Nov 10 (IANS) Tension at the Panjab University campus here prevailed on Monday with minor clashes between protesters and the local police as the students were demanding the conduct of senate elections whose tenure ended last year. The protest, which was supported by farmers and Sikh outfits mainly of Punjab, besides political parties, was announced by the students days after the Central government had to retract its notification to do away with elections for the governing bodies of the university. 

Even the police had to resort to a lathi charge to disperse protesting students on the university campus. More than 2,000 police personnel were deployed across the city, with 12 checkpoints set up, leading to traffic disruptions, particularly on the entry points to Chandigarh from Punjab and Haryana. Students under the banner of the Panjab University Bachao Morcha, which has been leading the agitation, got the support of hundreds of farmers from Punjab who reached the protest site after breaking police barricades set up along the Chandigarh-Mohali border. 

The Union Ministry of Education withdrew its order on November 7 in the wake of the protest by the students and criticism, but students continued with their agitation and gave a ‘PU Bandh’ until the Senate election schedule is announced. Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab condemned the lathi-charge on peaceful students by Chandigarh Police in coordination with Haryana Police. It said in a statement that the students were holding a peaceful protest against the dissolution of the Panjab University Senate and demanding fair Senate elections when the BJP-led administration responded with violence. 

AAP leader Baltej Pannu said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has repeatedly warned that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to impose control over Punjab’s institutions and political structure through force and deceit. “The BJP wants to capture every democratic platform in Punjab, from BBMB to Panjab University, by misusing central power and deploying central forces. But Punjabis will never allow such an assault on their rights and autonomy,” the party said. 

The statement saithat d under pressure from the students’ movement, the earlier notification dissolving the Senate was withdrawn within minutes, exposing the BJP’s nervousness and double standards. 

Pannu said, “AAP stands in full solidarity with the protesting students and supports their rightful and peaceful struggle for the autonomy and democratic functioning of Panjab University”.

Calling the police action a “brazen assault on democracy,” Leader of the Opposition in Punjab, Partap Singh Bajwa, accused the administration of converting the university campus into a fortress, with barricades at every entry point and students forcibly prevented from entering. 

“Peaceful protest is not a crime -- it is a constitutional right,” Bajwa said. “The attempt to crush dissent through brute force is outrageously undemocratic and exposes the BJP’s fear of student voices,” he added.