Tension returned to the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) campus on Tuesday when Vice-Chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile resumed duties after a two-month break following scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide and the subsequent unrest.
As the news spread, irate students barged into the residence of the Vice-Chancellor (VC lodge) where he was in a meeting with some deans and Executive Council members, and ransacked the furniture and broke glass panes. Raising slogans and blaming him for the suicide of Rohith Vemula, the students also allegedly damaged the CCTV surveillance cameras and attacked his car. The vandalism occurred minutes before Appa Rao was to address media persons to announce that he was resuming duty.
Student members of the ABVP reportedly came to the rescue of the VC, blocking the protesting students from entering his office. The police then entered the campus and lathi-charged the students to restore order - the students pelted stones at the police, too. The police also picked up 27 persons for questioning towards the evening.
Speaking to the media later, Podile said that what happened was violence of a magnitude never seen before in the University, and called it a black day for the place. He said that he would never buckle under pressure to resign, and that there was no question of him resigning. He also said that students could not decide who the VC could be, and that what was happening here would have repercussions in universities across India.
He also said that the problems would not get solved through agitations, and could only be decided upon by the courts. "I am trying to restore normalcy to the university. Some students are trying to defame the university, which has built a great reputation over the years. And by protesting in this manner when the courts are seized of the matter, they are also indirectly expressing a lack of faith in the judiciary," he said.
He also said that he would stay away whenever the judicial commission came to the university to collect the facts.
It may be mentioned here that Appa Rao Podile had gone on a long leave on January 24 after the students protested the administration's role behind Vemula's death, and Prof. Vipin Srivatsav had taken over as in-charge Vice Chancellor. Students allege that Podile was responsible for the action against Rohith Vemula which ultimately forced him to commit suicide.
Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya who recommended action against the scholar in a letter to the Human Resources Development ministry, Podile and two others were booked for "abetting" the suicide of Vemula.