‘Assault on Punjab’s legacy’: Centre dissolves PU senate, syndicate; draws flak from AAP, opposition, students

In a significant development, Centre has dissolved the governing bodies of Panjab University and restructured the Senate and Syndicate into fully nominated bodies, a move that has led to an uproar in the state, drawing flak from the ruling and opposition parties, students, and academicians. Through an October 28 notification, the ministry of education reduced the PU senate’s strength from 90 to 31 including 18 elected, six nominated, and remaining as ex-officio members, by amending the Panjab University Act, 1947.

Calling it an “unconstitutional” and “dictatorial” step, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann criticised the union government and said that he will knock the court’s doors. "The BJP-led Centre has issued a 'Nader Shahi farman' (decree of Emperor Nader Shah), which is totally against Punjab and its rights. The notification to dissolve the Panjab University's Senate is totally unconstitutional,” Mann said in a video message.

CM Mann argued that centre does not have the power to amend the Act through a notification, it must be done either by the Vidhan Sabha or Parliament. He called the decision Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s gift to the state and its people on Punjab day.

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Shiromani Akali Dal, Congress slammed the central government for dissolving the PU senate and syndicate, highlighting the ‘centralisation’ of Punjab’s legacy. Former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the decision concerning “the strongest symbol of Punjabis’ academic and intellectual life.” He remarked that the step will shift the control of the university from academic to completely administrative and bureaucratic hands.

Expressing shock at the nomination of the union territory’s “bureaucrats” to the university senate, he also strongly condemned the abolition of the existing graduate constituency and replacing it with “dictatorial” bureaucratic control. SAD president urged the centre to immediately withdraw these decisions “as this amounts to a brazen injustice and discrimination against Punjab.”

Student protest, opposition appeal

In opposition to the decision, PU students’ council has gone on an indefinite hunger strike, demanding the roll-back of the order. Member of Parliament (MP) Manish Tewari met the students protesting against a “half-baked affidavit that seeks to stifle freedom of speech and expression.”

Another MP and former student council president Malvinder Singh Kang expressed solidarity with the protesting students. “A university senate born of Punjab’s own legislative will in 1947 cannot be hijacked by a midnight notification. Reducing the Senate to a handpicked 31 is not “reform” it’s a bulldozer over democracy, a direct blow to Punjab’s constitutional rights under the Reorganization Act of 1966,” the AAP leader said in a statement.

Meanwhile, SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal has written to PU chancellor C P Radhakrishnan to withdraw the notification “changing the fundamental character of the institution by ending elections to its syndicate to make it a fully nominated body and packing the senate with nominated and ex-officio members to dilute Punjab’s control over the prestigious institution.”

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Indian National Congress (INC) leader Brinder Singh Dhillon, who’s also a PU alumnus, argued how the BJP government took over the university by first delaying the senate elections and then gradually abolishing the graduate vote.

“Panjab University was built by the people of Punjab — not by any government sitting in Delhi. It was born out of the ashes of Partition, rebuilt by our scholars, our teachers, our taxpayers — our pride. And now, the BJP government at the Centre wants to capture it — piece by piece, rule by rule, ordinance by ordinance,” he remarked and urged students, teachers, and Punjabis to fight the battle.