Panjab University Protests Escalate Amid Affidavit Row and Regime Crackdown Fears

Panjab University Protests Escalate Amid Affidavit Row and Regime Crackdown Fears

RMN News Report Highlights:

🛑 The core conflict at Panjab University involves a mandatory eleven-point affidavit that requires new students to seek prior permission for protests and warns that violations could result in debarment or cancellation of admission.

✊ The newly formed Anti-Affidavit Front launched an indefinite sit-in outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office, with PUCSC General Secretary Abhishek Dagar starting an indefinite hunger strike demanding the affidavit’s immediate withdrawal.

🏛️ The campus unrest is compounded by the central government’s late October 2025 notification to restructure the university’s governing bodies, a move condemned by political leaders as “dictatorial” and feared to be part of a broader strategy of academic institution capture.

⚖️ Students and organizations vehemently oppose the affidavit, arguing it is a direct attack on constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression, and its legality is currently under challenge before the Punjab & Haryana High Court.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | November 3, 2025

Chandigarh: The ongoing conflict over the mandatory “no-protest affidavit” at Panjab University (PU) has entered a critical new phase, as student groups launched an indefinite sit-in outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office under the banner of the newly formed Anti-Affidavit Front. This latest agitation is set against a backdrop of widespread outrage concerning the central government’s simultaneous decision to restructure the university’s governing bodies.

The dispute originates from an eleven-point affidavit introduced in June 2025 that new students are required to sign. This document imposes stringent conditions, including the mandate to seek prior permission for protests, limiting demonstrations to “genuine” grievances, avoiding noise pollution, and warning that violations could lead to severe consequences, such as debarment or cancellation of admission.

Students and various organizations have vehemently opposed the policy, arguing it constitutes a direct attack on constitutional rights to freedom of speech, expression, and peaceful assembly, labeling it an “affidavit of silence”. While the complicit administration has defended the measure as necessary for maintaining campus order and discipline, protesters maintain that it threatens academic spaces intended for debate and political expression.

Anti-Affidavit Front

The Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) General Secretary Abhishek Dagar (Students Organisation of Panjab University, SOPU) initiated an indefinite hunger strike at the protest site on October 30, 2025—a day prior to the scheduled launch of the sit-in. Dagar continued his fast, insisting he would not stop until the administration immediately withdrew the affidavit. Joint Secretary Mohit Manderana and Vice-President Ashmeet Singh also joined the sit-in on Thursday, lending support to the joint front and accusing the university of failing to engage meaningfully with student concerns over recent months.

The Anti-Affidavit Front, which includes students from the department of political science, Left-leaning groups, and independent student activists, declared they would continue the sit-in indefinitely, raising slogans and engaging in informal discussions near the administrative block throughout the day.

Broader Context: Allegations of Regime Capture

The campus unrest coincides with wider political contention following the central government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s late October 2025 notification to restructure the Panjab University Senate and Syndicate.

This amendment to the Panjab University Act, 1947, effectively dissolved the elected governing bodies. Political leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Members of Parliament from various parties, have ostensibly condemned the Centre’s move as “unconstitutional” and “dictatorial,” vowing legal action and extending support to the student movement.

Sources suggest that actions like the mandatory affidavit and the restructuring are part of a broader strategy by the Modi regime to subjugate students and capture academic institutions completely. It is feared this movement is part of a “silent crackdown” aimed at preventing potential revolt from students—specifically the “Gen Z” demographic, which has successfully challenged similar autocratic regimes in countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

This fear stems from the belief that while the Modi regime has successfully captured other democratic institutions, such as the media and judiciary, and the political opposition is “already dead,” students remain the primary group that poses a threat.

Some students aligned with the Modi regime are reportedly opposing the ongoing student protests at PU, following a model observed in autocratic regimes where hostile entities unleash their own groups to counteract legitimate demonstrations for rights.

Historical Precedent and Risk of Retaliation

The sources draw parallels between the current situation at PU and previous actions taken by the Modi government against student movements. In 2020, the Modi regime allegedly “terrorized” students at Jamia Millia Islamia University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi who were protesting against the imposition of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and National Population Register (NPR).

During those protests, regime-sponsored hoodlums attacked peaceful demonstrators at Jamia Millia Islamia University. Similarly, at JNU, nearly 50 masked mobsters entered the campus, attacking students and teachers with batons and stones in what is largely believed to have been a government-backed action because JNU students were leading the nationwide protests. Following these attacks, students were arrested and jailed on fabricated charges, successfully vanquishing the student protest movement, with some students still languishing in jail.

Currently, only a handful of Panjab University students are taking part in the protest. However, sources warn that if they attempt to escalate their movement against the hostile PU administration, they may face the same violent retaliation that was directed at students in Delhi.

In addition to the affidavit and restructuring, the PU students previously protested in August 2025 against stringent hostel re-entry rules, specifically a mandatory consent requirement, and alleged harassment due to a heavy police presence on campus.

The legality of the PU affidavit, challenged on constitutional grounds via a petition filed in July 2025, is currently before the Punjab & Haryana High Court, with the next hearing scheduled for November 11.

The controversy surrounding the Panjab University affidavit and the government’s restructuring notification is like a targeted blockade on a vital artery. While the affidavit acts as a specific tourniquet meant to cut off the flow of student dissent on campus, the Senate restructuring is a systemic, high-level intervention designed to control the entire circulatory system, ensuring that the institution cannot function independently or nourish political opposition.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.