At the Central University of Kashmir (CUK), democracy is taught but rarely practiced. Despite offering courses in governance, human rights, and political theory, the institution has functioned since inception without any elected student body or formal mechanism for student representation. No student union exists. No elections have been held. There has never been an official answer or a formal policy. The dispersal of KUSU (Kashmir University Students Union) worsened the situation
The administration is reluctant to engage with students and it was substantiated in July 2024, when tuition fees were abruptly increased mid-semester without any justification or rationale. Students across departments responded with non-violent and well-articulated protests, demanding transparency, and rollback of unjustified charges. The administration, however, offered only token rollbacks and invoked on-paper schemes like the Student Aid Fund which, to date, remains largely inaccessible.
Subsequently, a Right to Information (RTI) filed by the Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) revealed that no official government ban exists on student unions either at CUK or at the University of Kashmir. The administration had been following a verbal directive, issued informally over 15 years ago [1]. This revelation abolished the longstanding narrative used to suppress student union demands and exposed the absence of legal or regulatory grounds for continued denial of representation.


Vertika Kashyap

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