Left and right wing of ABVP and Dalit are the three ideologies, which rose the student politics at HCU.
Be it a national or international issue, the influence can be felt at the University of Hyderabad. If one group support any such issue, it would immediately lead to the protests by the other group and thus raise conflicts.
The protest held in August last year, was one such protest, by the members of the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), that led to a clash with activists of the RSS-affiliated AVBP. It resulted in suspension of 5 HCU students, among whom Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on Sunday, was one of them.
There was a news saying that, ABVP members attacked during the screening of ‘Muzaffarnagar baaqi hai’, a documentary on the Muzaffarnagar riots, at the Delhi University. The ASA was protesting on the same.
On the several issues like the rights of Dalits, minorities and other weaker sections of society and also on the protection of human rights and civil liberties, the left and Dalit-Ambedkar groups kept on conducting several demonstrations.
While, Dalit-Ambedkar groups, mostly go along with the Left-affiliated outfits, ABVP with about 1200 supporters and has 5000 students, is also a key player on the campus.
“There were protests over the Gujarat riots in 2000. The campus always remained active with student groups raising their voice against injustice and violation of rights,” said Bharat Naik, a post doctoral person.
Till the late 1990s, the student groups had no political identity. For instance, even The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) used to function as the university discussion forum, while the ABVP was known as discovery. With the increase in the number of students from SCs and STs, associations were formed in the 90s to represent these sections.
“ASA came into existence as many cases of injustices to Dalit students came to light. The need was felt for a group which can work for their rights,” former student, Suguna Rao said.
Similarly Tribal Students’ Forum (TSF) was formed to represent the voice of tribal students. There are also other student groups like Bahujan Students’ Front, Dalit Students’ Union, National Students’ Union of India, Other Backward Classes Association and Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika, all representing various groups.
While JNTU has issue based politics, HCU is filled with the caste based politics, one of the faculty members said.
It is alleged that since 2008, caste bias drove six students to commit suicide.
“Protests have always happened here, but there was no violence. This time the interference of politicians has created this situation,” said KP Zuhail, president of the university students’ union.
A few of the students opined that, after BJP came to the power at the Centre, ABVP boosted its operations like conducting the birth anniversaries of Swami Viveknanda, Sardar Patel and other personalities.
These activities, increased the rivalry with the other groups and thus the conflicts are going on, over the past several months
By Phani Ch
