Assam Tezpur University Protest: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday spoke with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan regarding the escalating situation at Tezpur University, which has been witnessing protests and a shutdown of academic activities for nearly a week.
Sarma said he has urged the Minister to appoint a Pro-Vice Chancellor immediately to ensure academic stability while an impartial inquiry is conducted into the conduct of the current Vice Chancellor.
"I urged the Hon'ble Minister to appoint a Pro-Vice Chancellor immediately, pending an impartial enquiry into the conduct of the present Vice Chancellor, so that academic stability is maintained," the Chief Minister said.
On the other hand, the students' fraternity of Tezpur University demand immediate appointment of acting vice-chancellor in Tezpur University.
"This is 75th day, we the teachers, students aswell as no-teaching staff of the university are protesting against the Vice-chancellor who has done lots of corruption. Since the death of our cultural icon Zubeen Garg, we have been protesting for justice but our vice-chancellor Dr Shambhu Nath Singh didnot show any respect to our cultural icon during his period of demise. During our protest we have find out lots of corruption in the university," said a teacher of Tezpur University.
He said, "During our protest we have find out lots of financial corruption against the vice-chancellor and he have ruined the administrative processes. During his periods numbers of appointments were done in a irregular manner and because of his corruptions the students has been facing lots of problem in the hostels,".
"In case of procuring books for the library, crores of rupees were spent in a corruption way and the books have been procured from some of the vendors which are not recognised and the books are mostly pirated one. Those books were procured in a higer price rate, so, we teacher, students and non-teaching staff stand together against the corrupt vice-chancellor," he said.
He added, " We demand to immediately remove the vice chancellor from the university and initiate an inquiry against his corruption".
"Today we have enter into 75th day protest. As you know that due to insult of our cultural icon Zubeen Garg after his death, the students of the university came out in protest against the vice-chancellor. We have raised questioned to vice chancellor about the hostel facilities, research facilities and after our protest intensify, and we have find out lots of corruption done by the vice-chancellor. We urged the centre to act upon it and removed the vice-chancellor from his post," said Kunal Sharma, a research scholar of Tezpur University.
"It has been six days, we competely closed down our university and want immediate response from the Ministery of Education and we want an appointment of acting vice-chancellor in our university. We will not resume administrative and academic functioning in the university untill we receive an response. This is the first time in the history of Tezpur University that the exams has been cancelled. We are expecting good response from the ministry of education and we have full faith that they will listen to us and if they donnot then we will take the protest to next level intensity," said a student protester of Tezpur University.
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said, "I am disappointed with the stand of the Chief Minister of Assam regarding the on-going protests at Tezpur University. Real leadership would have meant that the Chief Minister would have stood with the faculty, staff and students of this prestigious university,".
"Instead the Chief Minister is masking the failures of the current Vice Chancellor by suggesting a pro Vice Chancellor. Actually the current Vice Chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh is no stranger to controversy as several news articles state," Gogoi said.
He added,"Back when he was the Vice Chancellor of Patna University in Bihar, there were enquiries about financial irregularities from the office of Principal Accountant General. It would be best that prestige of Tezpur University should be paramount and a new Vice Chancellor be appointed. Stop using the Universities of Northeast for posting controversial VCs,".
The Tezpur University Student Fraternity Movement began on 21 September 2025 after students accused the administration of disrespecting public mourning for Zubeen Garg. Tensions rose when the Vice-Chancellor made dismissive remarks and later fled the campus, triggering a united protest by students, teachers, and staff.
Through late September and October, stakeholders highlighted administrative misconduct, financial irregularities, and environmental damage, while organizing symbolic events like the 5,000-lamp tribute and the Black-Clad Rally. Two high-level committees-one from the Governor and another from the Ministry of Education-visited the campus to investigate.
In November, the movement expanded to include protests against gender-discriminatory hostel rules and failures in the School of Engineering, leading to key resignations. By 27 November (Day 69), the campus entered full civil disobedience and lockdown, with stakeholders demanding accountability and the removal of the Vice-Chancellor.