Police talking to protesting students

Events following the arrest of three students of Jawaharlal Nehru University were reported to the minutiae by Big Media for days on end. This can hardly be said about the coverage of the on-going students’ agitation in the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) following the return of University Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile, who has been accused with abetting Rohith Vemula’s suicide.

On March 22, Tuesday, a group of students allegedly ransacked the VC’s official residence in protest. Students claim that university authorities have since responded by turning the campus into a war zone with the police lathi-charging and arresting close to 30 students.

Varsity authorities wrote to Cyberabad police asking it to stop “media personnel, political groups, external student organisations and politicians” from entering the campus on March 22. (Neither Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar nor Rohith Vemula’s mother were allowed to enter the campus.)

This reporter managed to get inside the campus and meet protesting students who say the university has turned into a Gulag.

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March 24, Thursday

It’s Holi and khaki remains the predominant shade as policemen roam the campus. Anyone who wanted to enter the university is frisked.

The staff of hostel messes had locked the kitchen and abandoned students on March 22.“We were left with zero option on Tuesday and Wednesday [March 22 and 23]. The police had taken over the grounds and gates. We in the ladies’ hostel ordered food from outside. But when the delivery guy came, the police did not allow him to enter the campus,” said Vaikhari Aryat, a PhD scholar. “After about 24 hours without anything to eat, we broke into the mess, cleaned it up, and cooked whatever was available in the store,” she said.

On March 23, Aryat sat in her hostel room and wondered where all this would end. The agitating students were in no mood to relent and neither were the varsity authorities.

“I sat in my room in the scorching heat and looked at the last bottle of water left,” she said. “Over a 100 hungry students sat at Vellivada, near Shop-Com, the spot where Rohith Vemula had set up a tent before his suicide, waiting for the hostel mess to reopen,” said a student, unwilling to be named. “It’s like we’re in a Gulag,” said another student.

Students say the authorities had cut down water supply, electricity and Internet. The administration, however, says the university has had water shortage for over two months and that they had not cut the water supply but that “some miscreants damaged the pump on the campus”.

Water supply was, however, restored to a couple of hostels and around noon the VC sent out an official release asking the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of protesting students to “apologize for attacking the non-teaching staff” if they wanted food and water restored.

The release claimed that the non-teaching staff had decided to go on strike after being “attacked by the students on 22 March 2016”. The JAC should give a written apology, the release noted.

The students of HCU, however, are not in the mood to apologise. They say the protest against VC’s presence on the campus was an “emotional outburst” brought about by his return. Providing the students’ version of what happened on March 22, Aryat said, “We squatted on the grass, and when the police came, we linked arms and legs and entwined ourselves to each other and refused to let go. The police tore us apart with brute force, and one by one we were separated, and led out of the campus.”

According to the students, once they were pushed out of campus, the police turned “really hostile”. They say they were caned and one of them, Uday Bhanu, a PhD scholar, who was trying to cook food for everyone, was hit on the head.

“They thrashed me and dragged me to the police van. They beat me till I fell in the van. One of them, who was in civil dress, crushed my fingers with his boots,” says Bhanu. “I told them I had undergone a surgery in the past and pleaded them to stop. But they did not,” he said.

Return of Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile

Appa Rao had left the campus in the third week of January, after the widespread protest that broke out in response to Rohith Vemula’s suicide.

The Gachibowli police had booked a case against Rao for abetment to suicide under IPC Section 306, and for committing atrocities on a Dalit under the SC/ST Act. Rao had handed over charge to a senior faculty member and gone on leave. Seemingly cornered, he left, as if never to return.

The agitating students believe otherwise. They are convinced Rao “plotted” his return “meticulously.” For starters, students point to the “task-sheet” his associates sent out a to the staff and ABVP students.“They were told where to come and what to do,” claimed Sunkunna Vepula, a PhD scholar.“The VC met seven ABVP students, including Susheel, accused in Rohith Vemula suicide case, before stepping into the campus.”

Vepula alleges that the unrest of March 22 was engineered as well. “When we marched to the VC’s residence on March 22, there were ABVP students at the spot,” he said.“They locked the door from outside, pushed and provoked us, after which the vandalism happened.” Furniture in the VC’s house was trashed and windowpanes were broken. Manasi MS, an MPhil student added, “The ABVP guys and some non-teaching staff raised slogans hailing Appa Rao. They were also shouting Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”

The university’s ABVP leader G Guruada denies the allegations of ABVP’s involvement. He said it was JAC members who vandalised the property. This point of view was repeated by J Dilip Kumar, Secretary, ABVP Hyderabad Unit. “ABVP activists are not involved in that incident. We do not get involved in violence. We always do peaceful protests,” he said.

According to the remand diary of Gachibowli police, 24 students, two faculty members and one documentary filmmaker have been arrested. Twenty more students have been added to the first information report. They are yet to be arrested.

Police versus students

The police have registered two cases against the protesting students and two faculty members, charging them with vandalism, rioting, criminal trespass and obstructing and causing harm to a public servant.

“They were all produced in Miyapur court and sent to judicial remand,” said Cyberabad Commissioner of Police, CV Anand.

University of Hyderabad Students Union President Suhail KP alleges the police arrests were illegal. “After the violence, police picked up students at random, those who were not involved. They beat up students brutally,” said Suhail.

Prameela KP, a PhD scholar, confirms that male cops dragged and manhandled female students. “They [male cops] thrashed us and dragged us out. There were very few female police,” she said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Madhapur Police, in a release on Thursday stated that the police only used “mild force” to disperse students:

“…after two warnings and refusal to leave by students, the police had to lift and take them away. The evicted students formed into a mob outside the compound wall and started stone pelting in which 4 police officers got injured including one women inspector Sunita and one constable who got a head injury. There was no lathicharge or abuse of any girl students by male policemen as wrongly reported in some media.”

Legal teams of various organisations and opposition politicians arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday to bail out the students, even as other students sat at Vellivada in silent protest.

“We will continue to fight for justice. Appa Rao’s violent methods cannot stop us. He should be arrested for pushing Rohith to commit suicide,” said Vepula.

By Thursday night, scores of students had gathered at the Vellivada. They had just been told that the bail plea of arrested students and faculty has been postponed to Monday. They shouted slogans against “casteist” Appa Rao and burnt his effigy.

For now, university authorities have relented and made hostel kitchens functional again. The move is unlikely to placate JAC students who want strict punishment meted to those who pushed Rohith Vemula to take his life.

Meanwhile,Rao believes the current crisis can be contained without him stepping down. “I am well aware of the challenges,” Appa Rao had told the media on March 22. “I believe these issues can be resolved with right communication with the parties concerned. We are now going to focus on academics.”