Vaikhari Aryat , A Dalit student activist in Hyderabad Central University wrote in her facebook wall.Â
So to ‘stand with JNU’ you just needed a students Union president arrested and the campus being alleged of anti-national hub. Alright!
Let me tell you certain interesting things I see here. The entire student community of UoH was labelled ‘anti-nationals, casteists and extremists’ in the leaked letter sent to MHRD minister by Bandaru Datthatreya in 2015 August itself. Nobody moved a finger in favour of UoH then. MHRD directly intervened in the internal affairs of an autonomous institution like UoH asking for the witch hunt of 5 dalit students. Nobody cared. One of them, being denied dignity and financial and mental support to continue studies, wrote a letter to VC Appa Rao Podile begging to provide cyanide or rope to hang for dalit students in campus. Nobody knew. 5 of them got evicted from hostels and were ordered to be socially boycotted. They slept out in the open and cold for 12 days. Who cared? After 12 days of public humiliation, one of them committed suicide. Then the whole nation expressed deep shock and started crying out loud. Wow!
Fast forward to 60 plus days and many protests later, VC Appa Rao Podile, the small fish who facilitated the murder of one of his own students, gets back to campus aided by right wing police and right wing administration. Nobody cares. Students starts protesting non violently and gets brutally beaten up and sexually, physically and verbally abused. Rape threats are issued at female students and Muslim students are called terrorists. Nobody bothers to report even. Around 36 people including 3 faculties are missing after police detained them. Do you care? Students are denied food, water, electricity, internet, movement and ATM facilities for more than 24hrs. This university has turned into a concentration camp where they imprison its own students. Are you even listening?
I am sitting in my room in this scorching summer, reading updates from people in Facebook where they discuss dogs to flowers, while glancing at the last bottle of water in my room. I see nobody standing up for UoH. I see no ‘idea of UoH’ being celebrated. I’m not worried and nor am I surprised. I know you will wake up when one of us just dies. You need victims to celebrate, not warriors.
I’m going out.
