Hyderabad: Hyderabad Central University continued to remain tense on Wednesday, a day after Vice Chancellor Appa Rap Podile came back from a two-month leave following Dalit student Rohith Vemula's suicide.
Students have been protesting since Tuesday and it didn't help authorities that Jawaharlal Nehru University students' chief Kanhaiya Kumar came knocking to Hyderabad in solidarity with HCU students.
The authorities have barred any outsider from entering the campus and classes have been suspended for four days.
"In view of the situation, classes are suspended from March 23 to 26. We have taken a decision not to allow any outsider, including media and political parties, on campus," Registrar M Sudhakar said when asked about the proposed visit of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar to the university.
Kanhaiya Kumar said the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice of Hyderabad Central University will continue with its struggle until the Centre brings out the 'Rohith Act'.
Read: Kanhaiya Kumar not given permission to address Hyderabad University: VC
He also said he would participate and address a public meeting organised by the JAC on the HCU campus this evening, ‘if the police permits’.
"I will first meet Rohith Vemula's mother Radhika and his brother Raja. JAC has invited me to address a public meeting on HCU campus... If the police allows, I will definitely go to HCU and address students," Kanhaiya told reporters at the Hyderabad airport.
"We have worked with JAC before and will take this fight forward... this struggle will continue until a 'Rohith Act' is implemented... to fulfil his (Rohith) dreams of social justice on campus," he said.
Rohith's mother and brother had last month met political leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Sitaram Yechuri and K C Tyagi, seeking their support for the enactment of a 'Rohith Act' against caste discrimination in educational institutions.
Police said additional forces have been deployed on the campus as a precautionary measure and pickets set up around Podile's official residence.
The move comes after the VC sought protection following Tuesday's incidents when his residence was vandalised allegedly by a group of students who were opposing his return as the Vice Chancellor after a two-month leave.
"The situation is peaceful. Forces have been deployed to maintain law and order," Joint Commissioner of Cyberabad Police TV Sashidhar Reddy said.
Meanwhile, the police prevented Congress Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao from entering the campus on Wednesday. The Congress MP demanded President Pranab Mukherjee should immediately recall the VC, holding him responsible for the state of affairs on the campus.
Police had resorted to lathi-charge on students who were protesting outside the VC's official residence on Tuesday.
Read: HCU students go on rampage after VC Appa Rao Podile resumes charge
The students had raised slogans against the Vice Chancellor, barged into his residence, broken windowpanes, smashed doors and a television set among other items.
The students demanded that the VC be arrested immediately as he was one of the accused in Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula's alleged suicide case on January 17.
Podile, who is in the eye of a storm over Vemula's suicide, had proceeded on leave on January 24 as the agitating students demanded his resignation and held vigorous protests seeking "justice" for the Dalit student.
Senior CPI leader K Narayana had earlier said that Kanhaiya Kumar would address a meeting at the university this evening and attend another on 'Constitutional Rights' at the Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Baghligampally here tomorrow, besides visiting Vijayawada.
‘Students can’t decide who should be V-C’
University of Hyderabad (UoH) Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile on Tuesday said the incidents that took place on the campus earlier in the day were acts of violence and not protest. He termed it as a ‘black day in the history of the UoH’.
Prof. Podile said, “If any group of students can dictate who should be the Vice-Chancellor, no university can have a V-C. This is going to be a national problem.” He said he was appointed V-C by the government and would only accept the government’s decision.
