The University of Hyderabad (UoH) Tuesday penalised three students for organising a “Shaheen Bagh Night” on campus on January 31, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The varsity has imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on Faseeh Ahmed EK, Sahana Pradeep and A.S Adish organising a protest in support of Delhi’s historic Shaheen Bagh protest by Muslim women against the CAA and painting graffiti on the walls at the North Shopping Complex of the varsity.
“The (three) students were involved in organising the ‘Shaheenbagh Night Event’ on January 31 from 2100hrs to 0230hrs on February 1 and also involved in painting graffiti and defacing the walls at the North Shopping Complex, in spite of instructions from the Security Personnel not to conduct the events as there was no permission to organise events after 2100hrs,” the order said.
The registrar’s order dated February 18 warned the students “to be cautious and focus on their studies in future.”
“The fine has been imposed without even a show cause notice, this is how quick administration intervenes and takes action on the issues where they can punish the Dalit/Muslim students in the campus,” Faseeh Ahmed, a research scholar from Department of Communication told Maktoob.
“Historically we have seen that including the suspension and social boycott issued against Rohit Vemula and five other Dalit leaders in the campus,” Faseeh added. Faseeh is also an active member of Fraternity Movement.
“It is a kind of continuous witch-hunting the voices of students in the university public spaces,” Sahana Pradeep, a research scholar in Translation Studies told Maktoob.
Sahana, who is an active SFI cadre told Maktoob that the administration had not followed the proper procedure. “Here, the administration directly penalised us without even sending any show-cause,” she says.
Adish and Sahana were part of the ‘Occupy Walls’ program organized by the Students Federation of India (SFI) campus unit a day before the “Shaheen Bagh Night”.
The “Shaheen Bagh Night” was hosted by the Hyderabad Central University Coordination Committee against CAA & NRC, a student’s collective to organize anti-CAA & NRC initiatives in the varsity.
“The varsity administration has been targeting the students who protest against CAA, NRC, and abrogation article 370. They even sent a warning letter to the Students’ Union president. SFI leaders had also received the warning letters from the administration for conducting protests,” Sahana told Maktoob.
