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Students from at least four colleges attended Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally in Hyderabad on Monday, November 2. The Union Home Minister was leading a Mahapadayatra to protest Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s stance against Election Commission-mandated Special Intensive Revision (SIR). One of the colleges felt duped and said they permitted their students to attend the rally because they were misled by a local BJP leader.
Around 60-70 National Cadet Corps (NCC) students enrolled in Hyderabad’s Pragathi Mahavidyalaya and 250-270 students from Moinabad’s Karuna School of Nursing were present at the rally. Around 40-50 students from Akshara Junior College and 83 students from Shantiniketan women’s college were also in attendance.
Amit Shah, alongside other senior leaders of the Telangana BJP, including state president N Ramchander Rao, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay, Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind, and others, marched from the Babu Jagjivan Ram statue to Mozamjahi market, a 2.6-kilometre stretch. The BJP OBC Morcha, BJP minority cell headed by Jagmohan Singh and the party’s medical cell headed by Dr Koppula Rajasekhar Reddy were also present at the rally.
However, several students TNM spoke to said they were brought to the two-hour rally by the college authorities. Some of them said they were made to attend under false pretenses and chant ‘Jai Sree Ram’, which made them uncomfortable. Many of the students also did not seem to fully understand SIR or the purpose of the rally.
‘Duped into attending’
TNM learnt that the students from Shantiniketan Women’s College were made to attend Amit Shah’s rally under false pretenses.
Speaking to TNM, Shantiniketan women’s college vice-principal Jyotirmai said a man named Bharat Goud had approached the college principal Amba Ramaswamy. “I don’t know who he is but he had told our principal that it was to attend a protest against the state government for not granting scholarships that have been pending for the past five years,” she said.
Bharat Goud is the district president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Secunderabad division.
“Our principal said she was hesitant to send students for a protest outside college premises. But since Bharat Goud had organised one protest in the past right outside our college and we received some of the scholarship at that point, she asked if any student was willing to go. Their parents were also informed,” Jyotirmai added.
It was only once the students, some of whom were Muslims, arrived at the rally did they realise what it was about.
“The students were asked to chant ‘Jai Sri Ram’ upon which they got very uncomfortable and the faculty at once got them back. The principal has apologised to the students. If we had known it was a politically motivated rally, we would not have sent them,” Jyotirmai said.
‘The college management asked us to attend’
Students from the Karuna School of Nursing, enrolled for the General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) diploma program, told TNM that they were asked to attend the program. “We came along with our faculty to see Amit Shah,” three students, TNM spoke to, said.
The nursing and midwifery students stood alongside priests under the banner of Golden Avatar Universal Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Mahabharat Foundation, a non-government entity registered in 2024. They were asked to hold a poster titled ‘Gau Samman Abhiyan’ (cow respect campaign) by members of the foundation.
“Around 100 priests associated with Golden Avatar have come for Amit Shah’s rally,” AB Chaitanya Das, a priest and the president of Golden Avatar, told TNM.
The NCC cadets and students from Akshara Junior College said that they were brought by their college administration for the two-hour-long rally. The students TNM spoke to did not seem to understand what SIR is about.
When asked about their concerns with SIR, one student from Akshara Junior College said that he knew nothing about the issue. “I don’t have much knowledge about SIR. My college got me here,” he said.
Two students from Karuna School of Nursing said that this wasn’t the first time. “We came along to another BJP rally a couple of months ago,” one of them told TNM.
Apart from the students, the party’s division presidents in the city also brought people along for the rally. Residents from Secunderabad Cantonment, Film Nagar, Sitaphalmandi, Balapur and other areas were present.
What Amit Shah spoke about
Addressing the gathering at Hyderabad’s Mozamjahi market, Union Home Minister Amit Shah slammed Rahul Gandhi’s rally held in New Delhi’s Ram Leela Maidan on Sunday, November 1st. The Congress-led opposition alliance gathered to protest electoral irregularities and the SIR of voter lists, as well as to demand the resignation and removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
“Rahul’s rally wasn’t a vote bachao (save the vote) rally; it was a ghuspeti bachao (save the infiltrators) rally. Congress wants to save Bangladeshi infiltrators who have got themselves on the voter rolls,” Amit Shah claimed.
“Rahul says BJP won because of SIR. In 2014 and in 2019, PM Narendra Modi won. There was no SIR then. How is it that when we win it is vote theft, but when Congress wins there is no problem with EVMs?” he asked.
“Forget PM Modi. Even my Telangana Yuva Morcha (youth wing) president can defeat Rahul Gandhi with ease,” Amit Shah stated in his 20-minute-long address.
The BJP leaders also discussed other issues as the yatra progressed towards Mozamjahi market.
Dr Jagmohan Singh spoke to TNM about the 1984 violence against Sikhs following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. “The violence took place between October 29 and November 3. Today would mark 42 years since the violence. Why would we trust the Congress after that?” he said.
Dr Rajasekhar criticised Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for “ruining the health sector in the state.” “Even the Junior Doctors Association protested owing to a lack of equipment. The funds for Aarogyasri are also not trickling in,” he said.