Allahabad University students protesting fee hike burn effigies of PM Modi, education minister

PRAYAGRAJ: Allahabad University students demonstrating against the fee hike burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on the occasion of Dussehra on Wednesday.

The group of students are protesting the fee hike at the university, allegedly by almost 400 times for undergraduate courses. Students' Union vice-president Akhilesh Yadav told reporters that they burned the effigies of Modi, Pradhan and vice-chancellor Sangeeta Srivastava as a mark of protest on Vijayadashami. He also called them "arrogant".

Yadav said they had been sitting on a hunger strike for 30 days but no heed was paid to them. Manish Kumar, secretary of the All India Students' Association's Allahabad University unit, said, "We burnt the effigy of the prime minister, education minister and the vice-chancellor against the way the fees have been increased."

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However, due to the Dussehra holiday, there were no students apart from those agitating on campus. On Tuesday, the protesting students threatened to expand their agitation after talks with the university administration failed.

The meeting between the university administration and the students' union over the fee hike, which lasted for about two-and-a-half hours, was a "complete failure", Yadav had said after the talks.