BHU Fee-hike: Blowing horns in front of buffalo to torch procession, why students are protesting

NEW DELHI: Students of Banaras Hindu University have been protesting against the BHU fee-hike for nearly a week now. The new proposal for increase in fees will be implemented for students taking admission this year, BHU announced while calling fee-hike claims “baseless”.

On October 15, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad Banaras Hindu University (ABVP BHU) unit called for an indefinite strike against the fee-hike for this term.

On the day the students started protesting, BHU issued clarification on fee-hike and said that the proposed increase is for students taking admission in 2022-23 and that the current students will not be affected by this. It also said that the university has not implemented fee-hikes in the last two academic years, 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Demanding immediate withdrawal of BHU fee-hike, students staged a protest before the Dean of Students (DSW) office on the campus for the first two days.

A huge torch procession was taken out from the Student Union Bhawan to Singh Dwar as part of the ongoing indefinite agitation by the ABVP BHU unit on Wednesday.

On the fourth day of the indefinite agitation, October 18, the activists protested against “the insensitive university administration” by blowing horns in front of a buffalo. The purported video showing students blowing horns in front of a buffalo that had a poster pasted on its body which read ‘BHU vice-chancellor’ and ‘ABVP against fee hike’ has gone viral on social media.

Allahabad University students were protesting for a month demanding administration to roll-back fee-hike.

BHU में कई पाठ्यक्रम की फीस में वृद्धि की गई है। जिस के बाद आज एक बड़ा ही अनोखा प्रदर्शन यहां देखने को मिला, जहां छात्र भैंस के आगे वीन बजाते दिखे। अब यहां भैंस कौन है आप समझ ही जाओ... #bhuprotest pic.twitter.com/4dsNMIFQiZ

— Abhishek Bhardwaj (@abhibhardwaj14) October 18, 2022