The All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA) protested inside the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus and sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to take cognisance of the "prevalence of caste discrimination in higher education institutions" across the country and to reject the Ramgopal Rao Committee recommendations about reservations in IITs. If any of the recommendations of the committee are implemented, the students said that they will go to Delhi to protest.
National President of the AIOBCSA, Kiran Kumar, also a student of UoH, said that the Government of India must immediately take necessary measures to end the caste discrimination in HEIs and strictly implement reservations. "The government must uphold the larger constitutional provisions related to social justice rather than entertaining such discriminatory committees. We will not keep silent if such injustice recommendations are implemented," said Kiran and added, "We will protest in Delhi if even one of the Dr Ramgopal Rao Committee recommendations is implemented by the Government," he added.
The protest saw them burning the committee report after which they wrote to PM Narendra Modi on the same issue. Recently, an assistant professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras has resigned from his post alleging incidents of caste-based discrimination at the premier educational institution. Keeping his case as an example of discrimination, the students asked the PM to take notice of the issue. "On the other side, Dr Ramgopal Rao Committee recommended not to implement reservations at Professor and Associate Professor levels, proposed two-year special preparatory classes for reserved students before joining PhD programs, and exemption of IITs from the Central Education Institution (Reservations in Teachers' Cadre), 2019," added the AIOBCSA. "We request you to reject the recommendations of the committee and constitute a committee inclusive of all marginalised communities for the effective implementation of reservation policy and uphold the constitutional mandate for social justice," added the statement from the student group.
But why are they protesting against the committee recommendations? "Two dangerous recommendations of the committee report are that there will be no reservations at the Professor and Associate Professor levels. it also exempts IITs from thebCEI Act 2019. The committee recommends a two-year special preparatory class before joining PhD course which is meant only for reserved students. This is just so that they can do service to these Upper Caste Professors and satisfy their ego," added Kiran.
