What would an ideal university look like? Certainly not one where the administration can take away your fundamental rights by making you sign an undertaking, not a place where free thinking gets curtailed, not a place where education is limited to mere textbooks and not taken to its application level, not a place where you are punished for raising certain demands legitimately!

I am Mineshi Mishra, a third year student from Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Banaras Hindu University (BHU). I had approached the administration last year to demand the opening of gates till 10 pm which now closes down at 8 pm for female students on the campus. Apart from that, I also asked for internet access in girls’ hostels and argued against the signing of an affidavit during our admission which states that we cannot participate in any protest or speak anything against the administration.

As the administration did not pay any heed to these demands, I approached the media. When the stifling life in BHU became news, the administration was forced to accept some demands, while many of them still remain unfulfilled as there is a distinction between what I consider legitimate to demand and what the administration considers legitimate to grant.

However, I never expected the administration to come down to a level where they make personal attacks during my hostel allotment this year. Initially, the administration denied me an allotment form saying that my name is blacklisted. I was shocked to hear this as I had never broken any rules nor was in the defaulter list even once. When my mother pleaded with them for the allocation of a hostel room, they became verbally abusive, shouting at me in my face in front of everyone. “We have got orders from the authority to not give you space in the hostel. Azadi chahiye toh bahar ja ke raho (if you want freedom, get lost from here),” shouted Neelam Atri, the hostel coordinator.

After my mother’s repeated requests, they agreed to give me a room. “We are giving you a space just because of your mother’s cry and plea. But, we need her assurance in return that you will not raise any issue on campus and you will not speak or write anything against the administration directly or indirectly. Also, your Facebook profile will be under surveillance,” said Atri. “If you repeat the mistake, just one more mistake, we will kick you out of the hostel without any warning,” added Atri. After all these threats and insult, they allotted me a defaulter room on the ground floor, away from my friends and other students of my departments, a clear method of alienation!

I have been fighting against these discriminatory rules since I joined BHU. But, I have never broken these rules until they remained as rules. I still have been allocated a defaulter room. My mother was insulted and it feels like I have lost my voice completely, including the very little space of activism that the campus provides.

Amid all the chaos and upheaval, I am still writing this open letter as I cannot live as a prisoner in a university campus, which ideally should be a place for free thinking and legitimate opposition. Perhaps, I will be thrown out of the hostel once this article gets published. Yet, I want them to know that instilling fear can never silence dissent.