Faculty members walk out in protest, but Hyd Uni says academic council took several decisions

Even as several faculty members walked out of Hyderabad University’s academic council meeting on Wednesday, a media release by the administration made no mention of it, and said that several decisions were taken.

The meeting, which was scheduled for 10.30 am, saw a walk out from several faculty members and Student Council president Zuhail who said that they would not attend meetings chaired by Vice Chancellor Apparao Podile, as he did not “deserve to be in the post”.

Controller of Examinations and Hindi professor V Krishna, who had resigned in January, told The News Minute that he would not resume his duties until Podile resigned from his post. The university has not accepted the resignations of Krishna and other professors who also put in their papers along with him.

Senior Asst.Professor Anupama Potluri who is a member of AC: “VC Appa Rao doesn’t have the moral right to be the VC of Hyderabad University. The meeting could not happen as many of the faculty members and other external invitees at the AC meeting expressëd their outrage against the VC. We also wrote a beautiful letter to the VC and produced it in the meeting.”

She said that the letter listed their objections against the VC and it was submitted to the VC before the faculty members walked out. The protesting faculty members said they wanted the VC to either resign or be removed from his post.

Students Union President Zuhail told TNM,

“Around 8:30 am in the morning everyone started coming for the AC meeting and students were protesting outside the VCs lodge. Student Union President and general secretary are external invitees for the Academic Council meeting. We are not allowed to vote, but we were there for the discussion. We went inside when Professor V Krishna walked out, and we demanded that he should chair the session. We asked them how long the university would have police presence,” he said, adding that after this, they too walked out. 

He said another professor too had objected to Apparao chairing the meeting. Around 150 students were detained today at the gate. “We haven’t planned anything further; we will announce once we decide in the JAC meeting,” he said.

The media release however, said that 106 faculty members of the total 170 attended the meeting, which was begun by observing silence over the deaths of economics professor AV Raja and Rohith Vemula. It made no mention of the walk out and protest of some of the lecturers.

Earlier that morning, dozens of students protested against the university. Students of Hyderabad University were mainly inside the campus and attempted to prevent the meeting from taking place. Students from other universities in the city such as Osmania University and EFLU and members of various student unions, who had responded to the JAC’s HCU Chalo call, staged a protest outside the main gate as police prevented them from entering the campus. They were soon physically removed from the area.

Police and RAF also issued a banner at the main gate of the Hyderabad Central University saying that “This is an unlawful assembly and if you do not disperse, police action will take action.”