A Dalit student is protesting at the Banaras Hindu University for being denied admission into the PhD program despite securing the second position in the entrance exam in the general category.
Shivam Sonkar sat on a dharna outside the Vice Chancellor’s residence when all his efforts to get admission failed, with students and also politicians throwing in their weight behind him.
This student sitting on a dharna outside Banaras Hindu University belongs to the Dalit community. He says that there are 3 vacant seats for PhD in the university but he is not being given admission. He is being told that it is a general seat, how can it be given to a Dalit.... pic.twitter.com/Ivi1j83IiM
— The Dalit Voice (@ambedkariteIND) March 24, 2025
Sonkar had given the exam for PhD admission in Malviya Centre for Peace Research. Despite getting the second rank, he did not get admission. There are a total of seven seats in the department, but only four students have been admitted.
He has now asked what his fault is – is it only that he is a Dalit.
Ajay Rai, president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, who also reached the campus to support Sonkar said that though the university was established as a temple of education, it had now turned into a centre of discrimination and injustice. That this should happen in the constituency of the Prime Minister was ‘shameful’.
The university’s explanation is that any change in the status of the seats, that is whether they are to fall in the reserved or the unreserved category, can only be made before the counselling session. Since there were no suitable applications for the reserved seats they have remained vacant. Since Sonkar had cleared the exam in the general category it was not possible to admit him to the general category seat.
Ashutosh Sinha, an MLC of the Samajwadi Party, has written to the PM alleging that Sonkar’s situation is an alarming example of creating obstacles in the path of higher education for students from the Scheduled Castes.
Chandrashekhar Aazad, chief of the Bhim Army and MP from Nagina has written to the state’s chief minister to pleas Sonkar’s case saying that the entire episode has raised serious questions about the transparency of the admission procedures adopted by the university.
Meanwhile the students union has threatened to launch an agitation if Sonkar’s situation is not resolved. The students have already burned an effigy of the VC and shouted slogans against him.
Sonkar, meanwhile, is sitting on a dharna with pictures of BHU founder Madan Mohan Malviya, Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Lord Ram.
