VC Must Go

The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) strongly condemns the brutal police action on students and teachers at the University of Hyderabad campus on 22March 2016. Students were protesting the return of the vice chancellor (VC) Appa Rao Podile to the campus, and official duties. He had gone on leave after the suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in January. He, along with Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and others, is one of the main accused in the case of abetment of Rohith’s suicide.

The Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) strongly condemns the brutal police action on students and teachers at the University of Hyderabad campus on 22March 2016. Students were protesting the return of the vice chancellor (VC) Appa Rao Podile to the campus, and official duties. He had gone on leave after the suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in January. He, along with Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and others, is one of the main accused in the case of abetment of Rohith’s suicide. This is not the first time Appa Rao has been criticised for his anti-Dalit attitude.

Central Reserve Police Force and Rapid Action Force personnel who were deployed on campus lathi-charged and beat up students; female protestors were also brutally beaten, grabbed and molested. Protesting students were chased and dragged into police vans. About 36 students and at least two teachers were arrested. Fifty students were injured.