Unrest in universities rocks Telangana Legislative Assembly

Hyderabad: The recent violent incidents in the University of Hyderabad and Osmania University rocked the TS Legislative Assembly on Saturday.

The Assembly was adjourned thrice after Opposition Congress and MIM stormed into the Speaker’s podium demanding a special debate on the issue, forcing the ruling TRS to agree.

The issue led to heated exchanges between Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and MIM Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi at one stage and also resulted in arguments between Congress, BJP and MIM members.

Mr Owaisi’s mike was cut off when he was raising this issue in the House as Mr Chandrasekhar Rao intervened and said that there was no need to have a special debate since the members can express their views during the debate on Demands for Grants on Home Department, scheduled for Saturday.

This angered Mr Owaisi who strongly argued with the Speaker and the Chief Minister over how his mike could be cut when he was speaking.

Mr Owaisi said asking parties to take up debate on UoH as part of the Demands for Grants debate was nothing but an insult to the Dalit community. He accused the Chief Minister and the TRS government of becoming a tool in the hands of BJP-led NDA government due to which the issue was being ignored in the House.

Home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy said UoH incidents have nothing to do with ‘Dalit issue’ since Rohith Vemula was not a Dalit and his caste certificate showed he was from ‘Vaddera caste’.

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao countered, “Mr Owaisi, As the leader of the House, I have the right to intervene. We didn’t want to cut off your mike but I wanted to know your point. Whatever you are saying is not correct.”

Mr Owaisi said, “The state government cannot escape from its responsibility by saying that the central university is not under its jurisdiction. When law and order problems crop up, there are provisions for the government to intervene and control the situation.”

Congress members, who wore black stoles to protest the attack on their MLA S.A. Sampath Kumar on the OU campus recently, also sought a debate on UoH and OU incidents.

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao also took a dig at Mr Kumar, saying that he did not even lodge a police complaint so far over the attack on him but was blaming the government for not taking any action against the attackers.

BJP MLA N.V.S.S. Prabhakar said, “Congress and MIM are trying to use UoH incidents for political gains. When hundreds of students committed suicide for Telangana statehood, Rahul Gandhi never bothered to visit and console them. But when Rohith Vemula committed suicide, clearly stating in his suicide note that no one was responsible for his death, he visited UoH twice. Similarly, MIM supported students who took part in rallies organised in support of terrorist Yakub Memon.”