Allahabad University fee hike protest intensifies, student tries self-immolation

PRAYAGRAJ: Chaos prevailed at the union hall of Arts campus of Allahabad University when a student leader and member of the National Student Union of India (NSUI), the student outfit of the Congress party, made an abortive attempt of self-immolation on Monday.
The student, identified as Adarsh Bhadauria, was protesting along with a large number of other student leaders at the union hall of AU on the issue of increase in fee of all the courses. Bhadauria allegedly poured kerosene which he was carrying in a bottle, on himself. But, before he could take any further step, police and other students caught him and prevented any untoward incident.
This followed a scrimmage between the police and student leaders wherein the protesting student leaders tried to free Bhadauria who was being taken by the police and detained. However, he was released in the evening. Later, police also detained some activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) (AU unit) in front of the office of the Dean of Student Welfare (DSW). ABVP has been protesting for the last few days against the fee hike and other problems.
“We had detained some student leaders of AU including the one who had tried to self-immolate himself but had freed them later in the evening after counselling them,” said Inspector Colonelganj, Ram Mohan Rai.
The student leaders claim that the AU decision is unjustified and against the student fraternity as most of the students belong to economically weak backgrounds and cannot afford the hike. AU authorities maintain that the fee, which has been increased after several decades, is still less than what other central universities are realising despite the fact that they are getting much more grant as compared to AU.
AU’s public relation officer, Prof Jaya Kapoor said, “AU has been facing reduction in funds but has still refrained from raising the fees. But in view of the need to garner resources to meet the expenditure and provide facilities to students and AU, fee hike was an imminent requirement.”
Thus, the decision was taken to raise the fees for the first time ever since the university came into existence as an independent entity in 1922, she added. Meanwhile a student leader, Ajay Yadav ‘Samrat’ has released a video wherein he is seen requesting the police and district administration to take action against him, if they intend to, but they should not trouble his family members or identify his house for demolishing.