Students and security guards clashed at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi on Saturday, after guards moved to remove tents put up by protesters demanding the restoration of campus elections. The university responded by shifting all classes online with immediate effect, and it will stay that way until further orders.

The tents were the flashpoint. Protesters had set up camp on campus to press their demands, and security personnel attempted to take them down. That attempt turned into a confrontation, and the campus was left split between a shuttered academic schedule and a standoff that shows no sign of ending.

The protest is being driven by a hunger strike. Five students have been fasting to demand the restoration of the Jamia Millia Islamia Students’ Union, known as JMISU, and the removal of the chief proctor. On Saturday, the strike reached its 13th day.

The student group AISA has gone further than the administration on what happened at the site. The group has accused security of attacking people at the protest, and it has put those accusations on the record.

Attacks are being carried out on the students on hunger strike and on those present at the protest site, AISA alleged.

The unrest did not stay confined to the tents and the fast. Posters appeared across the campus calling for the release of Sharjeel Imam, the JNU PhD scholar currently jailed in the anti-CAA riots case. Other posters read Free Kashmir. Those messages added a second layer of political tension to a dispute that began over student elections.

Why campus elections matter here

The core grievance is simple and direct. Students want their union back and want the chief proctor out. For them, the campus election issue is about who speaks for students and who answers to the administration. The hunger strike has turned that argument into a daily test of endurance, and the clash on Saturday pushed it into open conflict.

What the university has done

The university’s response has been to move every class online. That decision keeps teaching running on screens while the gates, the tents and the fast stay at the centre of the story. The announcement did not set a date for a return to in-person classes, and the university has said only that the online mode will continue until further orders.

What happens next

The available reporting does not show a negotiated settlement, a new date for union elections, or any move to end the hunger strike. What it does show is a campus where a clash over tents has escalated into online classes, a 13-day fast, and allegations of violence from a student organisation. Students, administrators and police will now have to answer the same question: how do you end a protest that has already taken over the campus?