Students at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi are continuing an indefinite hunger strike and sit-in to demand the restoration of the Jamia Millia Islamia Students’ Union (JMISU), which has not held elections since 2006.
The agitation began around 11–12 October 2026 near the Mirza Ghalib statue and related campus spots. Students say two decades without an elected representative body has left them without a proper platform to raise academic, hostel, and administrative concerns.
They have drawn inspiration from recent developments at Aligarh Muslim University, where student union elections were restored after sustained pressure.
Protesters accuse university authorities and police of restricting movement, sealing gates, deploying heavy police and paramilitary presence, imposing prohibitory measures, shifting classes and exams online, and creating difficulties in accessing food, water, medicines and other supplies. Several reports describe barricading, closed gates, and students bringing essentials discreetly.
The university has extended online classes (in some announcements into November and later periods) citing the campus environment.
Key hunger strikers have included Ebin Basil (a BA LLB student), Rehan Khan, and others who joined later. Health impacts have been reported, including significant weight loss among those fasting for the longest periods.
Disciplinary actions such as rustication, suspension and campus bans were issued against some participants earlier in the protest; the administration later revoked certain suspension and show-cause notices.
On 26 October the university issued an order stating that JMISU elections would be held 15 days after approval of a new students’ union constitution.
A drafting committee was formed with a target around 20 December for the draft. The order also addressed some disciplinary matters and an inquiry into security staff conduct. Students have rejected the formulation as insufficient, insisting on a clear, binding written timeline that includes approval of the constitution by a fixed date, election notification within 15 days thereafter, and completion of the process by early February 2027 (accounting for Ramzan).
They have also sought fuller withdrawal of all related disciplinary measures and other accountability steps. The standoff continued into late October, with talks described by students as deadlocked.
Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi has said negotiations were underway and appealed against any law-and-order disruption. The administration has maintained that drafting a constitution is a deliberate process and has urged an end to the hunger strike.
Students said that the demand in democratic terms: peer institutions such as Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University have functioning student unions, and representation is a basic right on a central university campus.
“For 20 years, Jamia Millia Islamia has had no student union. In a central university in a democratic country, that is not a small gap. Representation is a democratic right, and a union is how students put their problems before the administration… We had exhausted every other form of protest… As a last resort, we gave our health and our bodies to this protest… We will continue as long as we can… because we do not intend to compromise on these demands.”
— Ebin Basil, third-year law student and hunger striker
“JNU has a students’ union, and so does DU. If Jamia gets one, it will be a different voice.”
— Haneena, law student and organiser
The protest remains one of the more sustained campus mobilisations at Jamia in recent years. Students continue to press for a concrete, time-bound commitment on the union’s restoration.
If Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University can maintain elected students’ unions, the continued denial of the same right at Jamia Millia Islamia raises a serious question of consistency and accountability.
Both DU and JNU function as central universities under the same broader framework of higher education governance. The presence of active student unions there demonstrates that democratic student representation is neither impractical nor incompatible with academic order.
When the same facility is withheld from Jamia for two decades, it inevitably invites scrutiny of whether equal treatment is being extended across institutions.
Students at Jamia argue that the right to an elected union is not a privilege to be selectively granted but a basic democratic entitlement on a central university campus.
The prolonged absence of JMISU, they contend, cannot be justified solely by past incidents when comparable institutions continue to hold elections.
This disparity places a clear onus on the university administration and the government to explain why one set of students enjoys institutional representation while another is denied it.
Until a binding timeline for restoration is provided, the demand for a students’ union at Jamia will continue to stand as a test of whether democratic accountability applies uniformly across India’s central universities.
