You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
These lines from the poem written by Maya Angelou inspired the female Muslim student who was arbitrarily suspended from Ambedkar University of Delhi in March this year for allegedly criticising the vice-Chancellor, Anu Singh Lather’s Republic Day speech. Mantasha Irfan battles against selective and arbitrary suspension by the administration, not by means of any legal aid or patronage, but instead merely by the power of student mobilisation and protest. This is the tale of a female Muslim student fighting her way back into the university. Her battle gives hope to many students studying inside university spaces with countless unspoken words shrouded under the fear of suspension by the administration, suspension by the police, and academic loss.
Who is Mantasha?
Mantasha Irfan is a final-year student of Master’s at Ambedkar University of Delhi. She hails from Jamia Nagar in Okhla, Delhi, and travels an hour every day to get quality education at the public institute. Also an activist with the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Mantasha was suspended in March for a period of six months (or one complete semester) after the student criticised the Vice Chancellor of the university.
In her Republic Day speech at the university, the Vice Chancellor mentioned the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, stating that the issue is 525 years old and has now been resolved by constant, diligent efforts by the government. The VC also applauded the state for the establishment of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and called for B.R. Ambedkar to be a national figure instead of only a leading figure for the Dalit community.
It was to call out this speech by the Vice Chancellor that Mantasha wrote an official email to be sent to all the students of the university. Soon her email reached every student of the university via an email chain. After the female student criticised the Vice Chancellor for using the university podium for raising historical and religiously charged comments, the student was suspended and barred from entering the university campus for the next six months.
The suspension order by the Proctorial Board, released in the month of March by the university, stated that the student had been suspended because of ‘indiscipline’ and the use of ‘derogatory and disrespectful language against the head of the institution.’
The time Mantasha was suspended was very crucial to her academically, since she was about to complete her dissertation to finally get the Master’s degree from the university. A suspension for the next six months would mean that she would have to repeat an entire year before she could get her degree. This was also the time in the university when elections for the student council were taking place after almost 6 years of a gap. For any student doing political activism, university elections are a very crucial time for raising their voice and mobilising. Mantasha’s suspension at this time meant that neither could she take part in the elections nor complete her degree.
“I was told just the evening before to appear in front of the Proctorial Board on the matter. My father was emailed and called multiple times by the administration, who told him that I had said something derogatory about the Ram Temple. Now, at a time when there is already a lot of fear in the Muslim population of the country, you can imagine what this call would have done to my father and my family,” said Mantasha to the CSR Journal.
It was a tough decision for the female student. She had either to apologise to the administration or to accept her suspension.
“Since I do not belong to the lineage of V.D. Savarkar, I decided not to apologise. At that time, I did not feel I had done something wrong. Neither do I feel I did anything wrong today. And so, I did not apologise.”
Finally, on March 21, almost a month after the Vice Chancellor’s speech on Republic Day, an order stating Mantasha’s suspension was emailed to her. The order stated that the response by the student on the matter was found to be ‘non-apologetic’, following an interaction with the board members at the end of February. The student community felt that the action taken by the administration was representative of a large and sustained attack on the academic and democratic spirit of AUD. However, the administration defended its action in a statement saying, “The University’s Proctorial Board follows a consistent and impartial approach in addressing any instance of indiscipline, treating every student equally, regardless of background or circumstances… Every case is reviewed with due diligence, allowing for fair assessment based on evidence and procedural integrity.”
Battle Begins
After Mantasha was suspended from the university, students started to mobilise in large numbers, and by 24 March 2025, widespread protests continued inside the university campus. The series of protests that erupted in support of Mantasha was something that neither the administration nor the university students had ever witnessed before. More than a hundred students gathered inside the university for days to raise slogans and stage hours of demonstration in front of the Vice Chancellor’s office at the main campus of the university at Kashmere Gate.
When these protests went unheard by the administration, an indefinite call for a sit-in was announced by the All India Students’ Association (AISA). To keep this sit-in alive, students would take time to sit at the small protest site within the university, even during nighttime.
During the protest, the university looked nothing less than a garrison, with countless security guards keeping an eye on every student, Police vans waiting outside the main gate of the university to detain students at any second and multiple yellow barricades blocked the university space. Few media reporters covered the student agitation.
In this crowd of protesting students was a professor, who was also one of the founding members of the School of Global Affairs at Ambedkar University — the school where Mantasha was completing her master’s degree. Professor Kaustav Banerjee was amongst a very tiny section of the teaching staff that stood in support of the student. During one of the protest gatherings, Prof. Kaustav addressed the students to highlight the importance of demonstrations and discussions within the university space. But things did not go well for the professor, who was issued a show-cause notice by the administration. The show cause stated that the prof ‘incited’ students against the VC.