For several days, there have been no classes held at Hyderabad Central University, where 24 students were arrested a week ago on charges of vandalising the chambers of the university's top official.
With anger simmering on campus, the administration cancelled classes, stating they would resume today. However, calls by student groups for a boycott, together with protests, have made that tough.
The suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student, at his hostel in January, has turned the campus close to the IT hub of Hyderabad into a volatile zone, with a section of students demanding that Vice Chancellor Appa Rao be fired. It was his office that nearly 150 students surrounded last week for six hours, before being evicted by the police.
A committee that included human rights activists and lawyers says that women students were threatened with rape, and that Muslims were referred to as "terrorists" by the police. A bail hearing for the 25 arrested students and two professors is expected later today.
University officials like Mr Rao say those students who claim to be fighting for justice for Mr Vemula have breached protocol, campus rules, and the right of other students who want to get on with their classes.
C Gangadhar, 24, belongs to a family of farmers who, like so many others in the area, are coping with a relentless drought. The PhD student says that till the university configures an equilibrium, he cannot receive his fellowship, a large part of which he sends to his home. "My family has been asking me for money, but I have not got my scholarship yet. I have not been able to send my thesis report on time because of the effect these protests have had on our classes. I am a poor person. I just want to continue with my PhD," he told NDTV.
Surya Pratap Singh, 24, is desperate for a job -and worries that the university is no longer in the running for companies looking to hire. "There were companies waiting to come for placements, but now they aren't. This is the placement season. Someone has to think about us also. Those who have been arrested innocently need support. But why come around and ask us to boycott classes?"
Nearly 400 students today are boycotting classes in response to a call by those leading the Joint Action Committee, which has representatives of student groups that say the Vice Chancellor's removal is among their list of urgent demands. A month before Mr Vemula killed himself, he wrote a letter to Mr Rao, plaintively describing insidious caste discrimination. Students say instead of helping him out, the official went ahead with suspending Mr Vemula for allegedly assaulting members of a rival student group affiliated to the BJP.
Marika, studying Mass Communication, says she has no affiliation to any political group but supports the cause. "I am standing for justice. How can Vice -Chancellor Appa Rao just walk in one fine day into the university secretly as if nothing happened? He was head of the institution when Rohit Vemula died."
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