Beef Politics of Osmania ఏప్రిల్ 17, 2012

Behind beef politics at Osmania varsity, caste rift over Telangana
Express News Service, Hyderabad, Tue Apr 17 2012

Osmania University, the centre of Telangana movement, was on the boil on Monday after Sunday night’s clashes between students belonging to different castes over a ‘beef festival’ held on Sunday evening.

A second-year Arts student, T Rama Rao, was stabbed on Monday for making a reportedly inflammatory speech against the ‘beef festival’ organised by students of a particular caste who are pressing for beef to be included in the university’s hostel menu.

As the university did not take their views seriously, a section of students decided to organise a ‘beef festival’. Several food stalls were set up in the campus to cook and serve beef to those who attended. The festival was organised by different factions belonging to the Telangana Students Association, Progressive Democratic Student Union, Student Federation of India and students from English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU). EFLU hostel students had last year started a protest demanding beef be included in the hostel menu.
The opposition was led by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). On the face of it though organising the beef festival appears to be an act of defiance, it hints at a power struggle that’s going on among student wings in the university ever since the Telangana agitation started. Socially and economically backward sections have been accusing the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Telangana Joint Action Committee, ABVP and National Students Union of India of excluding or sidelining the weaker sections from the Telangana movement. (మరింత…)