Hyderabad varsity’s tribal students to ‘fast unto death’
ROW Say admin trying to stop their candidate from taking up post of student union VP
HYDERABAD: Tribal students at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) are all set to launch a fast unto death from Thursday to protest the administration’s attempt to prevent one of their candidates from taking up the post of student union vice-president on the grounds of inadequate attendance.
They reopened Velivada, a make-shift protest site at the university shopping complex, and launched a two-day relay hunger strike on Tuesday.
“We will wait till Wednesday evening. If there is no response from university authorities till then, we will convert the relay hunger strike into a fast-untodeath agitation,” tribal student leader Venkatesh Chowhan told Hindustan Times.
It was at Velivada, which translates to ‘colony of outcasts’, that five Dalit students went on a hunger strike in January 2016 to protest a ban imposed on them in the aftermath of a clash with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Pari- shad (ABVP) students. One of them, Rohith Vemula, committed suicide on January 18 – triggering a nationwide uproar.
According to Tribal Students’ Federation president B Sunder, Alliance for Social Justice (ASJ) candidate Naresh Lunavath had defeated Apoorva Jain of the ABVP by a margin of 250 votes to bag the student union vice-president’s position on September 21. Naresh secured 1,664 votes to Apoorva’s 1,434.
However, following a complaint from the ABVP that Naresh lacked the mandated 75% attendance to qualify for the contest, university authorities withheld his ascension and ordered an inquiry into the matter.
ASJ representatives submitted evidence showing that Naresh had the required attend- ance, but the grievance redressal committee appointed by University vice-chancellor Podile Appa Rao reportedly rejected it.
“This is absolutely false. The dean of the School of Medical Sciences, Department of Public Health, initially submitted a report that I had 75% attendance. However, she changed her version on three occasions after that. At one stage, she said I had only 64%. She then changed it to 68% and, finally, it was shown as 71%,” said Naresh, a first-year Master of Public Health student.
The students decided to launch the fast-unto-death agitation after repeated representations to university officials went in vain. Meanwhile, a university spokesman said the issue would be referred to a retired judge for an in-depth probe. “The retired judge will be given all records and documents pertaining to the elections. The report submitted by a committee appointed to check Naresh’s attendance at the School of Medical Sciences will also be furnished before him,” he added.