The Human Rights Forum (HRF) demands that the police force deployed at the University of Hyderabad be immediately withdrawn. The police are following up their brutal crackdown on students on Tuesday with further targeting and maltreatment of students on campus today. Their presence on campus mitigates against any effort at restoration of normalcy.
We wish to state emphatically that the sudden, hurried and near secretive re-assumption of charge as VC by P Appa Rao on Tuesday is at the root of the current tension at UoH. Rather than remove him from his position as VC, the BJP government is brazenly backing this man. In the interests of ‘justice for Rohith Vemula’, he must go.
HRF also calls for restriction on the media to be lifted and they be allowed into the campus. The government, both at the Centre and the State of Telangana must stop conducting themselves as if they are at war with our students.
VS Krishna
(HRF general secretary, AP and TS)
S. Jeevan Kumar
(HRF president, AP and TS)
23.03.2016
Hyderabad