‘Hyderabad University has turned into a police camp’

“The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has turned into a police camp,” said Srikanth K., member of the Ambedkar Student Association in UoH, to which research scholar Rohith Vemula also belonged. The statement ironically came during a discussion on ‘Democratic campuses for education’ organised by the Karnataka Vidhyarthi Sanghatane on Wednesday.

Mr. Srikanth, a PhD scholar in English in the same university, is among the students who have been protesting on campus for over two months now. Close to 300 students from UoH, including the four who were suspended along with Rohith, are expected to take part in the ‘Delhi Chalo’ programme organised by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) on February 23 to draw the attention of Parliament towards Rohith’s case.

In an emotional speech delivered in Kannada and English (he is from Shivamogga), Mr. Srikanth asked the audience, “What forced Rohith to take this extreme step? He was not a weak person. We are still in shock.”

Mr. Srikanth criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for accusing other parties of ‘politicising’ the issue. He said that students were, in fact, happy that other parties expressed solidarity with them. “But it is sad that a brilliant student like Rohith had to die for the issue to be brought to the notice of the nation,” he added.

There were similar stories from two other campuses that have been in the eye of a storm. Ramesh from the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, Indian Institute of Technology – Madras, which was derecognised by the institute, said the education system is being ‘saffronised’, and anyone who criticised this would be branded as ‘anti-national’. “We are in a fascist society today,” he added.

Shambhavi from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, which has also been witnessing unrest, brought out the issue of discrimination against female students in Indian campuses, giving examples of the early curfew in hostels for girls, preventing them from using facilities such as libraries and laboratories.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) organised a protest against the goings on in JNU, saying that a place of learning is turning into one where ‘anti-national activities’ are being carried out.

‘Let his letter be the icon’

“Don’t use Rohith’s suicide as an example. His letter should be the icon. Write letters and express yourselves,” said Srikanth K., member of the Ambedkar Student Association in the University of Hyderabad (UoH), while speaking at a discussion on ‘Democratic campuses for education’ on Wednesday.