Volume 4, No. 11, November 2003

The Punjab government announced a Himalayan hike in the fees in all government and private colleges in April 2003. As a loyal follower of IMF-WB-WTO dictates, Amarinder is vigorously pursuing the policies of Liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation (LPG) in all sectors. Of late, he disinvested the profit making Punjab Tractors Ltd. He is determined to privatise the Electricity supply. Despite incessant struggle for Minimum Support Prices(MSP) for wheat and Paddy, and for the implementation of free supply of electricity to peasants, Amarinder is doing nothing except shedding crocodile tears, passing the buck on to the Centre. As agriculture is in crisis, the debt burden on the peasantry is increasing and there are regular incidents of suicide deaths of peasants in rural areas. The peasant unions called for a rail and road roko on September 30th demanding MSP(minimum support price) for paddy, payment of 126 crores of arrears for Sugarcane, and waiver of peasant debts. Electricity board employees are agitating against privatisation of electricity and the Central Electricity Act, 2003. In the name of decentralisation, he has entrusted 7 govt departments like elementary education, rural water supply, rural housing, health centres, veterinary service, etc., to the Panchayati Raj institutions without allocating any funds. The name of the game is that- if these wings financially collapse, they could be privatised. Opposing these policies the state government employees are on the streets. On 22nd September, there was a demonstration of 30,000 Government employees. Over 7000 teachers of 172 affiliated colleges called for mass casual leave and held a massive rally on 25th September and was planning for an ‘education bandh’ against the slashing of grants to 60% against 95% in the previous years, demanding implementation of pension and gratuity schemes, and retention of class XI and XII classes in schools. The Punjab College Teachers Union(PCCTU) is leading the agitation. The Federation of association of Principals also stood in support of the proposed ‘education bandh’. On the whole, various sections of Punjab society are on the roads. Latest are the students.

Despite being one with the highest GDP states in India, Punjab spends a meagre 2.2% of its GDP for education, ignoring the decades old Rajni Kothari’s recommendations on education. There is a steep rise in expenditures and even to maintain the present levels of requirements, the amount for allocation on education needs to be increased as a percent of GDP, as India’s position in the Human Development Index is still poor. But, following the dictates of international financiers, the governments — Union and State — are cutting down funds on education gradually. To augment the deficit in allocations the educational institutions are asked to increase the fees from students.

The consequences of the steep fee-hike are phenomenal. No college in Amritsar district could take 20 or more students in any undergraduate class. In the Government college, Satiala, only 12 students, including six who had failed last year sought admission in B.A. (part-I) against 220 last year. The reason — a Himalayan hike in admission and tuition fees in colleges. In the case of B.A, the revised fee is Rs.7,300 per annum against Rs.750 earlier. And for BSc students it has gone up from Rs.900 to 7,800 per annum. For MA part-I students the fee was hiked from Rs.1,500 to Rs. 11,780. In Punjabi University, Patiala, B.Sc.(Science) had a big hike from Rs 23,860 to 34,160, where as for B.Tech the increase was from Rs. 42,240 to 70,410. The increased fee sought to be collected was around 50 crores. Apart from tuition fees, rest of the fees the were also increased. Hostel charges were doubled.

In Punjab nearly 60,000 students graduate every year. Of these only one tenth go for PG courses. It has been feared that this year the figure would come down to an all-time low of 5per cent of total admissions in UG and PG courses. After the first week of admissions, even after the slashing down of the minimum percentage for admission to MA and MSc Classes, only 15-30 seats have been filled in PG colleges. In Jalandhar, BD Arya’s College decided to close the MA(English) classes, as only four students sought admission out of 30 seats. In Ludhiana, there have been few admissions into various courses like, MA in Punjabi, Hindi, Political science, Geography, History. At GGN Khalsa college only 5 of the 40 seats were filled in Punjabi. There were only four applications for 14 seats at KLSD college, Ludhiana. In Mastwana college of Sangrur district, only 17 took admission out of 400 seats available for BA part one. The situation is similar in other colleges. Worst hit are the girl students, especially from rural areas since in all critical situations the axe falls on them as the parents prefer boys being sent to colleges.

To fight this unjust fee hike, various student organisations formed the Joint Student Front(JSF) on June 9th. Around 10 organisations were part of it. Before this formation, some student organisations took campaigns to rally support of students as well as other sections of people against the fee-hike. While the Punjab Radical Students Union (PRSU) campaigned for a week covering 17 villages, the PSU(Shahid Randhawa) held Chetana rallies and held public meetings in the rural belt of Bhatinda. There was a good response from the people.

The main demand was a total roll back of the fee that was hiked by the government, the other demands include: Abolition of tuition fee for girls at all levels of education (this year they introduced tuition fees for girls); Stopping the privatisation of 98 ITIs and 18 Polytechnics; and also stopping of 1000 private ITIs to be commenced from this year.

The JSF held a convention on 9th July against the fee-hike and was followed by a rally of 1000 students at Patiala. The JSF called for a state-wide struggle. Immediately various parts of Punjab saw series of demonstrations, rasta rokos, boycott of classes. The Punjab Students Union(PSU) effectively implemented the boycott of new admissions with propaganda and persuasion of students in Malerkotla (Sangrur district) college. It faced police high-handedness and the police foisted cases on some of its activists. The struggle was snowballing into a major confrontation with the State. The JSF invited various fraternal organisations to widen the struggle. Around 10 organisations of peasants, agricultural labourers, teachers, employees extended support to the student community. Except, NSUI which has been collaborating all along with the govt. all the other student organisations became part of the JSF. The struggle atmosphere was uneven in Punjab. It was intense in the Malwa belt, to some extent in the Doaba region and not present in the districts of Amritsar and Gurudaspur districts of the Maajha region. The JSF announced 24th of July to have state wide demonstrations and rallies. On 22nd July itself the government unilaterally withdrew the fee-hike to pre-empt widespread agitations.

While some colleges were slow in implementing the new GO taking some pretext or other, the Punjabi University, Patiala continued the fee-increase.

Since the academic year 2002-3, the UGC has been gradually slashing the annual grant to the universities and Punjabi University (PU), Patiala too received decreased grants. The reduction reached from 90% grants(of the total expenditure) to 68% last year and to 42% by 2003-4. This was the excuse taken by the Punjabi University to enhance the fees. But is this the solution? Should the students become victims for the fund crunch of the universities? If the entire deficit is to be bridged by collecting fee from students by the universities or for that matter any other educational institution, only a miniscule of students from the very rich, could afford university education in India. Though students all over the state enjoyed the roll back of the fee like by the state government as a result of the struggle, the Punjabi University did not care to implement it on the pretext that they are autonomous and they had to fill up the deficit of Rs.4 crore as they had not received sufficient grants.

On 21st June, the Syndicate approved the fee-hike in PU. The Punjabi University Students Confederation (PUSC), an umbrella organisation which comprises nine student organisations (one did not join), gave a call to initiate an agitation to oppose the fee-hike. There were immediate demonstrations opposing the increase and a dharna was held before the Syndicate, followed by further demonstrations and public meetings in the campus. On 8th August there was a total strike in the University. The struggle atmosphere had been building up. Demonstrations were becoming larger and larger. In the picketing before the University gates, on August 22nd almost half of the university was present there. Around 800 girl students were part of the picketing. On 25th the Vice Chancellor’s office was gheraoed. There was a complete boycott of classes. On 26th August, the VC, while attending a religious function in a Gurudwara in the campus, started maligning student leaders in his speech. Students protested and asked for a chance to reply his allegations. The VC left the stage in a huff and fled. Students surrounded his car. He had to run on his naked feet to escape the wrath of hundreds of students. He suspended five student leaders and banned entry for them. Within a couple of days the strength of suspended/entry banned students reached 18 including nine girl students.

The VC took the Gurudwara incident as an affront. Angered by the defiance of the students, he closed the University and the hostels on 28th of August. Unable to nip the growing movement, the VC took this cowardly step instead of having talks.

The bureaucrat turned Vice Chancellor bragged that he could deal effectively (euphemism for suppression) with various trade union struggles including coal mine workers’ struggle. He boasted that he would see that whoever was responsible for causing him to run with bare feet, would never be able to step into the campus. Maybe his memories went back to those days, when he locked out factories to throw workers on the streets. He closed the University and hostels too. Students refused to leave the hostels. He brought heavy security of the armed police to get the students vacated. Even then, students did not leave the campus and continued the dharna before his office. The VC took the Tuglakian step of double locking all the 8 hostels, including the toilets, spending thousands of rupees on purchasing 1000 and odd new locks. Still students did not relent. They continued to lock horns with the State and University authorities. The VC constituted a disciplinary committee and asked students to appear before it but no one turned up.

Students continued to stay in the corridor of the VC office holding dharnas. No clothes to change, girls and boys did not leave the campus. People from the five villages nearby the campus helped the students with food and other needs resisting the police refusal to them to enter the campus. In contrast to that, when the police offered some help, students refused to take it. The Dharna continued for three more days. To avert the ongoing movement flaring up to higher levels, Amarinder sent the deputy speaker for talks on 1st September and though he acceded to the demand of rollback of fees up to 95%, the demand to withdraw suspension and entry ban on students was not conceded. Students did not accept the agreement reached by the delegation of the PUSC. Several student organisations realised the mistake and announced to with draw from it and renew the agitation. But the agreement was not acceptable to the VC too. Though the government released an amount of Rs.1.25 cr the same day as a part of the package of 4 crores, The VC was obstinate in rolling back the fees, and annulling the disciplinary measures, saying that he could accept the demands only when students tender an apology. The agreement became dead. The University authorities started opening some departments in which they felt that the participation of students in the agitation was low, only on the condition that they should give an undertaking that they would not participate in any activity which creates disturbances to the ‘academic atmosphere’. Students flatly refused. On 4th September, the VC celebrated ‘victory’ as he thought the agitation was over. Insiders say that he spent a lot of money on drinks from the University funds. But this delight of his was short lived.

The PUSC disowned the agreement and called for continuing the struggle demanding 100% roll back and withdrawal of all cases, suspensions and entry ban of students. Again the Deputy speaker tried to intervene on 12th September. On the apology issue talks broke. When the students did not relent, non-bailable warrants were issued against twelve students. The PUSC gave a call for a rally on Sept. 16th in the campus and on 18th there were protest rallies and boycott of classes in most of the educational institutions of Patiala in support of the struggle in the University. It gave a call for protest rallies and road blocks in Patiala and a call for a state wide chakka jam on October 1st. But 18th was the turning point.

On 18th the Police from six districts were brought to Patiala. The University and the rest of the colleges witnessed a heavy presence of armed police. Every bus was checked and all the student looking youngsters were sent back. They were not allowed to enter. Gates of some colleges were closed lest they may boycott and participate in the demonstrations. Each department and each hostel was surrounded by police. The University gates were closed and none was allowed to enter nor allowed to go. Girl students were dragged and taken into police vehicles in the university campus when they were calling fellow students to boycott classes. Students from Mahendra college jumped from the hostel walls and 400 of them participated in the rally. There were lathi charges at four places. Despite heavy deployment of police, students managed to skip through cordons and demonstrated at several places including the CM’s residence. Effigies of the VC were burnt at various places in Patiala. The Bharatiya Kisan Union(Ekta), BKU(Ugrahan) and Milkmen Union came in support of the rally. Whwn the BKU (Ugrahan) was not allowed into the city, they blockaded the road and were arrested. The Police did not spare even media persons with the lathi charge. They have broken their video cameras and snatched cameras. In support of the struggle, throughout state, demonstrations were held and effigies were burnt. People from a wide cross section stood in support of the genuine struggle of the students.

Clearly seeing that the wind was blowing in favour of students, as more and more support was coming forward from wide sections of people, the VC getting isolated in his own fraternity, and fearing a state wide anti-government movement, the CM, Amarinder, sent his Home secretary for talks and the government acceded to all the demands. There was a 100% roll back of fees, cases were withdrawn, and suspensions were annulled. The VC had to bite the dust and had to accept the victory of the students.

The Amarinder government has been adamant towards the demands of any section of the people. But, he had acceded to the demands of the students before this agitation actually unfolded into a big movement. The Congress got an inkling that it may simmer into a widespread struggle with larger ramifications, as it had been gaining the support of broad sections of the people. As elections are near, in five states, the Congress does not want a bad patch on its hand. Contradictions in the bureaucracy also helped the agitation turn in the students’ favour. The important aspect is the unity and resolve of the students. And the broad support of the people.

The Punjab students have shown that if fought determinedly and unitedly with large support of the people, we can resist the juggernaut of LPG, which is causing enormous suffering to a wide section of people. There were many localised struggles against fee-hikes across India. For example, in Tamil Nadu, there was a good fight by medical students against privatisation of medical colleges. Employees of the Dayanand Medical college, Ludhiana fought a bitter struggle against privatisation by the Punjab government. The neo-liberal agenda of the imperialists, dictates that the state should keep off from any allocation from the social sectors like education, health, etc. Educational institutions should be run like business enterprises on the principle: ‘Earn and survive’.

If these policies are not resisted, education would become the preserve of the elite class only. Privatisation and commercialisation of education is going on with great speed. The student movement has to catch up with that. Under GATS, education services were divided into five sub sectors. Higher education is one of them. The imperialist countries are putting pressure on India to include education on the list of services for access to foreign competition. The US govt already wrote to the GOI on this issue. Australia is also preparing to make use of the market access of opportunities in education in India. Once the universities become part of the WTO’s jurisdiction, the autonomy whatever the universities have, would be severely compromised and advanced research would become just another product subject to the imperialists’ fancies. All students have to fight against education becoming like any other commodity in the market. They must not only combat the consequences of these policies, but also eraditcate the cause from its roots...... i.e. the imperialist sytem itself.

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