The agitation over Ph.D admissions in the Osmania University Journalism Department took an ugly turn on Monday, when a protester allegedly hit the department’s former head and professor K. Narender in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor, S. Satyanarayana.
Expressing shock over the attack, the Osmania University Teachers Association (OUTA) has decided to take out a procession from the Arts College to the V-C’s lodge on Tuesday to seek action against the attacker. “If the V-C fails to take action, we’ll represent our case to the Chancellor,” OUTA representatives said.
Earlier in the morning, a batch of students owing allegiance to the Madiga Students Federation and other organisations barged into the department. “Without any provocation, they started abusing us, alleging that Ph.D admissions were not being conducted as per the reservation norms,” the professors said.
Entering into heated arguments with them, the agitators charged that injustice was being meted out to candidates of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and backward classes in the appointment of academic consultants on a contract basis.
“They didn’t follow reservation norms in the Ph.D admissions. Our demand is to adhere to the rule of reservations,” they said. Students are losing several job opportunities since they are not getting 50 per cent marks in the MCJ course, they added.
The agitators also forced the department faculty members - Mr. Narender and Mr. Srinath Reddy to the V-C’s lodge on the campus. They repeated their charges in front of the V-C and in a particular instance, one of the protestors lunged at Mr. Narender to hit him on his face.
The Arts College principal, Laxmaiah, immediately intervened, chided the attacker and also apologised to the professor. However, no complaint was lodged with the police. Professors Narender and Srinath Reddy have decided to go on indefinite leave but declined to divulge reasons behind it. The V-C was unavailable for comment.
