HCU students go on rampage after VC Appa Rao Podile resumes charge

Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad was rocked by violent protests on Tuesday when vice-chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile resumed charge after being on leave for nearly two months, since the suicide of Rohith Vemula in January.

The students have been demanding his resignation since then. The police manhandled and lathi-charged students who then resorted to stone pelting. In the skirmish five policemen and scores of students were injured.

Around 10.30 am, while Prof. Podile was conducting a meeting of the Executive Council at the vice-chancellor’s lodge, some students entered the lodge and started vandalising the building.

Soon after, a group of students, in support of Prof. Podile and allegedly belonging to the ABVP, and some faculty members of the School of Life Sciences, entered the lodge to protect the V-C. They locked the room where the executive council meeting was being conducted from inside.

University of Hyderabad sees day of chaos

University of Hyderabad was virtually shut down after Tuesday’s violence. During the ransacking of the Vice-Chancellor’s lodge on Tuesday morning, a few non-teaching staff members were manhandled by the students resulting in a strike by the University of Hyderabad Non-Teaching Employees Association (UHNTEA).

As a result, all the eight messes in the university were shut indefinitely, leaving students with no option but to go to the canteens or outside the campus for food. Administration works also ceased.

UHNTEA president R. Gangaraju said, “When some students were vandalising the V-C’s lodge, a few of the non-teaching staff members present there advised them not to damage university property.

However, they did not heed the advice and manhandled the staff members. Such violent protests were never witnessed in the university before. We have decided to go on strike till there is an inquiry and those who manhandled the staff members are brought to justice. Till then hostel messes will remain closed.”

There are around 1,000 non-teaching staff including around 200 officer cadre staff. All classes were also cancelled. A senior professor said most classes might not function on Wednesday too as the teachers were divided on the issue.

Apart from staff members, a few media personnel were also manhandled by the students while they were clicking pictures and shooting videos at the V-C’s lodge. The media personnel, some of whom suffered minor injuries, also staged a protest outside the V-C’s lodge.