Continuing their protest against police presence on the campus, 400 students from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) attended a protest movie screening in the campus.
Three film clubs from the university, supported by the UoH Students’ Union, organised a public screening of the film “Prisoners of Conscience” by Anand Patwardhan.
The screenings were organised two days after students and teachers gheraoed the Vice Chancellor of the university, RP Sharma, asking him to listen to their woes in the campus.
The Chief Guest at the screening was Professor K. Laxminarayana, President of the University of Hyderabad Teachers’ Association, who spoke about the need for Universities to be free from State and market control.
"Universities are supposed to be spaces of critical thinking, debates and discussions, but hegemonic coercive ruling class outfits, including the BJP which is currently in power at the Centre, are clamping down upon all such spaces of dissent in the name of national interest," a press release added.
The protests began following anger among the teachers over one of them belonging to the North-Eastern states being subjected to a search by the university security and police based on a verbal complaint that there were 'illegal occupants' in her house.
The students meanwhile wanted the Vice Chancellor to withdraw the new hostel code of conduct and added that the varsity should deal with issues based on its own mechanism.
Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor has claimed that, “the administration cannot take a stand against the police or against any direction from the MHRD, since it is the MHRD who funds the University.”