UoH stand-off: Congress on backfoot as support pours in from across nation for protest

University campus remains on the boil, with UoH boycotting classes and taking out a massive rally from various hostels to the varsity administration building

Hyderabad: Even as support from the student community across the nation poured in for the University of Hyderabad (UoH) students’ protest against the Congress government’s move to auction 400 acres of forested land in Kanche Gachibowli, apart from celebrities also extending solidarity, the Congress government tried to wriggle out of the major embarrassment it had landed itself in by slinging mud in all directions.

That the State government was finding itself on the backfoot was evident from the hurried meeting that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy called for at the Police Command Control Centre here with a few Cabinet ministers including Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy. He was also slated to fly to New Delhi later in the day, reportedly to appraise the party high command on what was happening here.

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The Congress strategy became clear a little later as the Ministers addressed a press conference, with Ponguleti going to the extent of alleging that the entire protest was being masterminded by certain political party workers, whom he called “paid batches”, who were even attacking police officers.

The Congress also resorted to mudslinging in multiple ways the same day, flinging allegations on the ownership of the land, on the transaction history of the land with TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud and others coming out with versions of their own.

On the other hand, the campus remained on the boil, with UoH boycotting classes and taking out a massive rally from various hostels to the varsity administration building. In a hard-hitting response to Revanth Reddy’s recent remarks that there were no tigers or deer in the area, but some “cunning foxes” trying to obstruct development, students carried posters with caricatures of a fox that read: “We are the Foxes, Our Den, Our Land, Our Rights”. On the other hand, the Students Union, along with several other students’ organisations, called for an indefinite protest, commencing Tuesday. The ABVP UoH unit called for a maha dharna at the university main gate even as a large number of police stood put at the university east campus and main gates.

Students from various university campuses also came out voicing solidarity with their peers in UoH. While the English and Foreign Languages University and Jawaharlal Nehru University students condemned ongoing clearing of the biodiversity rich land, there was tension on the Osmania University campus as students staged a protest. Protesters, including from BRSV, PDSU, AISF and SFI, demanded immediate withdrawal of the auction plan. Tension escalated on the Kakatiya University campus in Hanamkonda as well after police tried to thwart attempts of different student unions from taking out a ‘funeral’ rally of Revanth Reddy in protest.

Meanwhile, support from various other quarters as well continued to come for the students. YouTuber and social media influencer Dhruv Rathee, in a post on X, said the deployment of huge number of bulldozers inside the university campus was unacceptable. Actor Prakash Raj also condemned the felling of trees and clearance of greenery and stated that the destruction was not acceptable.

BRS working president KT Rama Rao also criticised the government over its continuous demolition drives, destroying homes of people and animals in the name of environmental protection and development. Meanwhile, police forces were deployed in large numbers near the residences of Rama Rao, senior MLA T Harish Rao and other BRS leaders in Hyderabad to prevent them from joining the students in their agitation. On the other hand, BJP MPs from the State led by union Minister G Kishan Reddy met union Minister for Human Resource Development Dharmendra Pradhan and sought the Centre’s intervention in protecting the 400 acres and halting the land auction. Stressing that Supreme Court directives clearly bar deforestation without the Centre’s approval, union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay also demanded Revanth Reddy to immediately withdraw the decision to auction the 400 acres. CPI (M) leaders also protested and were arrested while attempting to stage a dharna at the UoH campus.

The day also saw the PIL bench of the Telangana High Court posting for hearing a case pertaining to the proposed auction of 400 acres after Kalapala Babu Rao, a retired scientist from the city, filed a writ plea asking the court to declare unlawful the State’s proposal, which he said was in violation of the Forest Conservation Act.