During protest, divide between political parties came to fore

With eleven protesters having been taken to the hospital and a handful of the students having continued their hunger strike for eleven days, the situation had reached a point where a negotiation seemed inevitable and the lift came at the announcement of the ad hoc arrangement proposed by the authorities.

Members of Students for Society (SFS), who had been taking the lead from the beginning, had called a press conference earlier in the day to reinforce that the suggestion for a fixed meal by the PU authorities was 'laughable' and that the authorities were tilting in favor of the mess contractors.

Some of the protesters held the opinion that the authorities were playing dirty politics with the students. "The authorities are being divisive by providing enhanced subsidy to EWS students, as compared to the others. The constitution guarantees equal rights to all," said Loveneet Thakur from Student Federation India (SFI).

The initial fervour that started the protest was seen dying down as the parties had a difference in ideologies once the process of negotiation began. "The protest stretched for so long because the members from SFS and SFI were not willing to budge from their demands even slightly while a complete roll back seemed a near impossibility," said Sanjeev Sharma from Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) who thought that SFS members emulate comrades of Panjab.

PUSU had earlier withdrawn its support from the protests by taking down its posters on Wednesday but today insisted that they were a part of the protests 'till the end'. Sunny Mehta, who was representing National Students Union of India said that while his party stands for the Centre in the traditional political spectrum, SFS had been 'leftist' from the start.

"This protest has the same faces since the beginning and on the fifth day, the VC had asked all parties to come to the table. The fact that none came forward at that time shows that the issue was deliberately prolonged," said a security officer at PU.

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