ABVP protests Rahul's visit, calls college bandh in Telangana

HYDERABAD:Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad ( ABVP) today protested against the visit of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi to the Hyderabad Central University campus over the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula even as it called for a "bandh" in Telangana colleges.

Gachibowli Police Station Inspector J Ramesh Kumar said 24 ABVP activists were "dispersed".

"They were not detained. They were identified and dispersed from there," he said.

The BJP's student wing called for a bandh of colleges in Telangana in protest against "politics over dead bodies" by Rahul in the HCU.

"ABVP strongly opposes the politicisation being done by Rahul Gandhi in Central University at a time when peaceful atmosphere is returning in the university," ABVP national executive member Kadiam Raju said.

Gandhi should stop the "politics over dead bodies" and help restore normalcy in the HCU, he said.

"ABVP questions why he (Rahul Gandhi) did not console when Dalit women students died in a medical college in Chennai," Raju asked.

For the first time after more than a week of turmoil over the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, academic activities resumed in the Hyderabad Central University yesterday even as protests by students in support of their demands, continued.

Academic and administrative activities had come to a stand-still in HCU from January 18, a day after Rohith's suicide, with agitating students spearheading protests seeking justice for him.