The campus remains tense after the assault on PhD scholar Uday Bhanu on Wednesday while he was trying to cook food in a makeshift kitchen in the compound of the university campus. The scholar, who was detained by the police, was injured after the crackdown and is currently in the Intensive Care Unit of a city hospital.  

While water supply and kitchens of the hostels are operational again, with the non-teaching staff of the university returning to work, the situation remains tense with students accusing the police and university authorities of brutality. 

“This is a Nazi concentration camp,” a student told ScoopWhoop in a telephonic interview on Thursday on condition of anonymity. 

“The way police is roaming on the campus and beating up students for no reason smacks of the way this Fascist government treats its youth,” the student said. 

The students have alleged that many girl students were molested, assaulted and dragged by their hair during the police action on Tuesday after students staged a sit-in near VC Podile’s lodge. On Wednesday, social media platforms were peppered with messages, videos and photos of police assault on the students. 

Apart from the shutting down essential supplies like water, food and electricity, students also alleged that they were unable to use their State Bank of Hyderabad debit cards issued to them by the university. 

While the general atmosphere inside the university is of “chaos and fear”, the students have expressed concern over the condition of the 25 students and two faculty members who were arrested in connection with incidents of vandalism at the VC’s lodge and stone pelting at police personnel. All the 27 arrested students and teachers have been sent to judicial custody and are presently lodged in the Cherlapally Central Prison.

Meanwhile, the mother of deceased Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula, Radhika, who had tried to enter the campus on Wednesday night, was denied entry by the police and campus security. 

“She wanted to hold a dharna inside the campus, but we prevented her from doing so. She along with around 200 students attempted to go inside the campus, but we stopped them and they finally withdrew their protest at around 11.15 pm,” HCU Chief Security Officer TV Rao said. 

Many HCU students who have been mobilizing support against the police crackdown through social media told ScoopWhoop that they have strong reason to believe the current crisis is part of a “conspiracy” to “de-legitimize and polarize the campus” after a movement over Rohith Vemula’s “institutional murder” across India.

“All of it was planned meticulously. It’s a collective punishment for rising against this anti-Dalit and anti-minority Fascist dispension,” a student said in reply to an email query from ScoopWhoop.

“Yes, they have resumed essential services including internet and electricity but that does not mean we are safe. We are worried about our safety and of those who are in jail,” the student wrote.

“You don’t starve even worst of your worst enemies,” she wrote. 

(With inputs from PTI)

Feature image source: PTI