PU on the boil: Politicians, farmers join stir against Centre’s overhaul

The row over the Centre’s restructuring of Panjab University’s Senate and Syndicate is refusing to die down, with the agitation spilling from the campus to the streets and widening into a political storm. What began as a students’ protest has now drawn politicians and farmers into its fold.

The Tribune, which first broke the story of the University’s dramatic overhaul, found the campus simmering again today as students shut Gate No. 2, blocked entry and exit, and staged an indefinite sit-in that continued late into the evening.

The movement gained further momentum as senior politicians joined in solidarity.

Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi reached the university to express support for the protesting students and denounced the Centre’s move, alleging that “attempts are being made to finish this varsity systematically by the BJP and the RSS.”

Calling it “a murder of democracy”, Channi demanded the withdrawal of the restructuring notification, and urged Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to convene a special Punjab Assembly session to discuss the issue.

“We will fight it out,” he said, adding that he will raise the matter in Parliament.

Sangrur MP Simranjit Singh Mann, too, visited the campus and slammed the “unilateral dismantling” of PU’s elected bodies.

On the farmers’ front, leaders from the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, Bharatiya Kisan Union, and Bharti Kisan Mazdoor Union, including senior farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal, converged on the campus to back the students. Rajewal declared that the move amounted to “encroachment upon Punjab’s heritage” and vowed to resist it “tooth and nail.”

The student protest, now intertwined with a broader political battle, also drew fresh statements from across the spectrum.

However, support for the Centre’s decision continued to pour in from academics and members of the University’s past administration.

Satya Pal Jain, former MP, eleven-time Senator, and member of the Administrative Reforms Committee, while speaking to The Tribune, strongly defended the restructuring as “perfectly constitutional and in the best interest of Panjab University.”

He argued that the Central Government had full powers under Section 72 to amend the PU Act, 1947, citing similar precedents since 1966. “The amendments are valid, timely and essential for better governance,” he maintained.

Academia backed the move. Several former and serving Vice Chancellors and professors hailed the decision as long overdue.

The sweeping overhaul, notified by the Higher Education Department on October 28, has reduced the Senate strength from 90 to 31 members, abolished the graduate constituency and turned the Syndicate into a fully nominated body.

The Centre insists the reforms will end political interference and usher in an academic-first governance model. But for the protesters -- from students and farmers to Opposition parties -- the fight, now echoing across Punjab and Chandigarh, has become symbolic of something larger: the battle over autonomy, federalism and identity of one of India’s oldest universities, born in Lahore in 1882 and rebuilt in Chandigarh after Partition.