False Narratives and Fee Hikes: Rewriting the AMU Student Movement

Once a campus rooted in culture and dialogue, AMU now stands at a troubling crossroads. Allegations of student mistreatment and administrative aggression have shaken its foundations. Students speak of intimidation, abuse, and unjust detentions. Even peaceful resistance was reportedly met with force

Fatima Zehra

August 9, 2025

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“Baab-e-Syed Became an ‘Arena’; Female Student Faints, Security Guard Injured”. This is the headline of the section of Dainik Jaagran, a very reputed and widely read newspaper.

On August 4, 2025, students of Aligarh Muslim University gathered at Baab-e-Syed, not to create unrest, but to seek answers. They sat peacefully, holding placards and waiting for answers. Weeks of unanswered emails and ignored appeals had led to this moment, where students finally chose the road that passes through the university’s most symbolic gate.

Yet a section of the press chose to call it an “arena.” That word wasn’t an accident. It was a calculated move–allegedly by the AMU administration itself–to reduce pain for performance and strip the moment of its seriousness. What was essentially a plea for basic fairness was deliberately framed as chaos.

Baab-e-Syed did not become an ‘arena’; it became a site of resistance, where students stood unarmed against an administration armed with silence, surveillance, and suppression.

The article as well as the official notice by AMU claimed that the fee hike was between 15 to 20 percent. But official student records tell a very different story. The increase in all courses ranges between 36 to 40 percent. These are students who already live with frequent blackouts in summer, broken-down hostels, and mess halls that are barely functioning. And now they are being asked to pay more for–yes you got it right–the bare minimum services.

The disparities within the system are impossible to ignore. In the budget allotment of AMU, the Vice Chancellor’s lodge has been allotted ₹1,25,000 for entertainment expenses, while ₹69,000 is distributed among tens of thousands of students across 20 halls and 80 hostels of residence. If “inflation” is the justification, then shouldn’t it apply for all? And if this increment is truly necessary, the university must explain why it refuses to reveal how funds from the expanding NRI and Self-Financed Scheme programs are being utilized. Repeated calls for financial transparency or any sort of communication for that matter have gone unanswered.

Then, in a shocking display of disregard for student safety, in this very same article, a female protester, Ms. Sana Mubeen, had her personal details—her full name, home address, and family background—published without consent. The very act that should have prompted outrage was normalized in a few lines of text.

Also, instead of addressing the student’s concerns, the article tried to delegitimize the movement by pointing out an alleged familial connection between a former student protester and a criminal figure. A desperate attempt to distract from the real issue.

This is a university that has always held culture, dialogue, and mutual respect at its core. And yet, even that foundation is now under threat. According to the students, on 4.08.2025, officially the first day of the agitation, one of the proctors of AMU hurled abuses at students less than half his age. Furthermore, on the same day, when police arrived to detain Mr. Rayyan, a student who had done nothing to warrant such treatment, both male and female students stepped forward to protect him. They stood between him and the officers, asking for justification. In return, they were pushed, grabbed, and manhandled. Not even women were spared. These were students defending one of their own, in a place that should have protected them.

Still, the administration said nothing. In fact, protesters say it is highly likely that the police force was sent by the administration itself.

When the students tried to pitch tents to shield themselves from the rain, security attempted to tear them down. In this series of events, a female student fainted and apparently, a female guard stopping the students was injured. The writers of the newspaper grabbed this opportunity and framed the students as savages who are disturbing the peace of the campus.

In the days that followed, students were given suspensions, detentions, and FIRs. These actions came without hearings, without investigation, and without any clear legal basis. Students who sat on the ground holding posters and asking for justice were treated like criminals. This was not discipline; it was punishment designed to silence. And needless to say, the use of police machinery against young voices inside a university speaks volumes about where the administration now stands.

It has been 3 days yet the student’s demands have not been fulfilled. The administration’s silence in the face of pain, its refusal to speak to its own students, and the misuse of public trust points not to mismanagement; but to a slow moral collapse.

When facts are twisted, when students are silenced, when journalism forgets truth and chooses spectacle, and when power fears questions more than it fears injustice, the soul of a university begins to erode.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan built AMU for light and truth. Today, that light flickers. And the truth? It’s being buried under tired excuses and police boots.

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