JNTU-H students lathicharged by Hyderabad cops as they protest against varsity's decision to conduct exams

After nearly 250 students of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) gathered at the university gate on October 5 to protest the university's decision to conduct exams during the ongoing pandemic, the police had to take counter-action to disperse the crowd. According to student sources and videos being circulated, the action taken by the police was quite "brutal" and about 50 students have been detained. "Without bothering to see if the student is a boy or a girl, the police lathicharged us brutally," alleged D Ganesh, a member of the JNTU-H Students' Committee. The students had gathered at 11 am and the protest began to get loud and boisterous before the police broke them up. 

It is to be noted that the conduct of exams has been upheld by the Supreme Court based on recommendations by the UGC and the guidelines issued by the MHA. JNTU-H had initially agreed to pass all the students before rolling their decision back on the direction of the Supreme Court.

Scene near JNTU-H | (Pic: Vinay Madapu)

After boycotting online classes from the last week of September and conducting a digital candlelight protest on October 3, students of JNTU-H quickly realised that all their pleas are falling on deaf ears. They even started an online petition on change.org which has over 49,906 signatories. These protests have been the consequence of the varsity backtracking on its promote-all plan and deciding to conduct exams for previous semesters though they have commenced classes for the next — leading to a whole lot of chaos.

Members of National Students' Union of India (NSUI), Telangana State and Students' Federation of India (SFI) were also present. "We have written thousands of emails as well, but to no avail. The management refuses to even listen to our demands," says Ganesh. Students are demanding cancellation of all the end of semester exams that are to be conducted at the end of October.  

Though the students tried their best to maintain social distancing norms, the advent of the police and what happened (before and after) also made it tough for them, though almost all of them had a facemask on.