Hyderabad University Incidents: Telangana Assembly Feels The Heat

Security beefed up at Hyderabad University in the wake of students’ demonstration against university Vice-Chancellor P Appa Rao after he returned from a nearly two-month leave in Hyderabad, on March 22, 2016. (Photo: IANS)

The incidents at Hyderabad Central University and Osmania University rocked the Telangana assembly on Saturday with the opposition stalling the proceedings to demand a full-fledged debate.

• The house was adjourned thrice since morning as the opposition Congress and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) insisted on a debate on the police brutality against students at Hyderabad Central University (HCU).
  
• As soon as the house met for the day, the two parties demanded their adjournment motions on the issue be taken up, but Deputy Speaker Padmadevender Reddy rejected this.

The Congress party also raised the issue relating to the attack on its legislator Sampath Kumar’s car in Osmania University and demanded action against those involved. The MLA’s vehicle was damaged when he visited OU campus on March 23 when students were staging a protest after the recovery of a man’s body from a sump.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that the attack on the MLA’s car in Osmania University was condemnable. The chief minister, however, wondered why the Congress MLA did not lodge a complaint with police.

KCR Terms Incidents at Univs ‘Unfortunate’

Security beefed up at Hyderabad University in the wake of students’ demonstration against university Vice-Chancellor P Appa Rao after he returned from a nearly two-month leave in Hyderabad, on March 22, 2016. (Photo: IANS)

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, also termed as ‘unfortunate’ the incidents that occurred at the two universities. “The death of a student at HCU is unfortunate,” he said referring to the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula.

Says His Govt is Ready to Discuss All Issues

KCR told the house that the government was ready to discuss all issues. He took objection to the manner in which the opposition was raising the issue and alleged that they were only interested in using the issue for political mileage.

Opposition Says CM’s Suggestion an Insult to Dalits

MIM leader in the house, Akbaruddin Owaisi, said the chief minister’s suggestion that the issue be discussed as part of the demand for grants is an insult to Dalits. He condemned the arrests of students on HCU campus and the police atrocities against them.

Police arrested 24 students and two faculty members of HCU on March 22 when they were staging a protest over P Appa Rao resuming his role as the vice chancellor. The protestors alleged that Appa Rao was responsible for Rohith’s suicide in January.

Student groups alleged that police beat up students after arresting them and also assaulted them in police stations.

Meanwhile, Congress party’s Telangana unit president, Uttam Kumar Reddy, alleged that police attacked the MLA’s vehicle.