For some strange reasons, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has some kind of antipathy towards Osmania University, despite the fact that it was the nerve centre of Telangana movement between 2009 and 2014.
Except a couple of student leaders like Balka Suman and Pidamarthi Ravi, none of the OU student organisations backed the TRS during or after the movement. They waged the battle independently under the leadership of Prof M Kodandaram.
After the Telangana formation in 2014, KCR has not visited OU at all, let alone interacting with the students.
Only once, he came to the campus on the occasion of centenary celebrations of OU. While then Govenor E S L Narasimhan spoke on the occasion, KCR did not utter a word and left the place in a huff.
The KCR did not even appoint a full-time Vice Chancellor to the OU for several years and it was only last year that he appointed Prof D Ravinder, who is considered to be closer to the TRS, as VC.
Because of his contempt towards OU, the chief minister is now hell bent on preventing Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi from entering the campus to interact with students on May 7.
Though the Congress leader applied to Vice Chancellor long ago, asking for permission to hold meeting of Rahul Gandhi in Tagore auditorium, V-C kept it pending and after taking instructions from KCR, he refused to give permission.
University registrar P Laxminarayana said the permission was denied as per the resolution taken by the university executive council on June 22, 2021, not to permit any political or religious organizations to organise any sort of gatherings on the campus.
He also said there were elections to the OU employees’ union on May 7 and therefore, all the colleges and offices on the campus would be engaged for election purpose.
“The University campus is busy with academic and examination schedule and moreover, students are preparing for the job recruitment tests. If Rahul comes to the campus, it might disturb the atmosphere and there might be a law and order issue,” Laxminarayana said.
The Congress leaders moved the high court, which directed Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University to re-examine the petition filed by the Congress leaders for allowing Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with students on May 7.
While asking the petitioners to apply to the Vice Chancellor again seeking permission, the court, hoped that the VC would take the appropriate call.