Even though a few of the basic facilities are provided to the students and faculty locked in the grounds, HCU remained simmering yesterday.
It is known that, the police detained 27 students and two professors on March 22nd evening, whose existence was unknown since then. All of them were produced at the Miyapur court yesterday and reportedly their bail plea has been postponed till March 28th, leaving the students and faculty in prison, till Monday.
All of them were booked under 11 charges pertaining to rioting, voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, among others.
Dontha Prashanth, one of the students who is picked up, had been expelled from the hostel, along with the deceased PhD student Rohith Vemula.
WiFi facilities and electricity were back on campus after 48 hours, banned ever since protests erupted against Vice Chancellor Podile Appa Rao rejoining the university on March 22nd.
As the students took to social media to make the issue public, even drinking water was made available in hostels, earlier in the day.
The non-teaching staff on strike, are against the students, manhandling some of their colleagues during their protest at the VC’s office, also came back to work. Their absence it was, that caused the shortage of food across the campus.
According to a statement released by the student collective formed in the wake of Vemula’s death, the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, “The moment Podile Appa Rao entered the campus, the first thing that happened was an absolute Internet shut down for students. Then they closed down the messes, water and sanitation... After an entire day of lathi-charge, physical and sexual assault on us, we slept without food and water; today we are cooking together and preparing our own food. Apparao has suspended all classes until Monday."
Though the campus that houses 5,000 students in its 20 hostels is far from normal, it is limping away from the state of siege it was in on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Campus, as there was no internet, people standing vigil at its closed gates, used the social media, to their best, to spread the updates of the issue.
Police lathi-charged the students and allegedly the male police even beat up female students brutally, and threatened the women with sexual abuse.
The most visible act of violence is what’s been perpetrated on Uday Bhanu, a student who was, reportedly, beaten up by the police so badly for cooking food for the students that he landed in the ICU.
Social media supported well in gathering food and water packages to be dropped off at the gates. Pleas were sent out to gather bail money for the 27 students in jail. Rohith Vemula’s mother, Radhika, along with JNUSU Chief, Kanhaiya Kumar protested, sitting at the campus gates
Police presence in the campus, acted as a fuel to the fire in the students. The protest against VC, took place as he is seen by students and the JAC as complicit in the death of Rohith Vemula. Under the SC/ST Atrocities Act, Appa Rao currently has a non-bailable charge. JNU Teachers Association and the HCU alumni and faculty, openly condemned the violence.
By Phani Ch
