VISAKHAPATNAM:Taking a serious view of the presence of some Professors of Andhra University at the Yuva Bheri programme organised by the YSR Congress Party on Tuesday to discuss the special status issue, minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao Thursday called upon Andhra University vice-chancellor GSN Raju to check the guidelines to take action against those professors who made comments against the government relating to the special status, highly placed sources told Express. While Ganta Srinivasa Rao is learnt to have maintained that the presence of the professors in an anti-government programme is wrongful, the professors in question argue that the issue being discussed - the special status - has already been mentioned in the AP Reorganisation Act, and is therefore not anti-government.
As part of their series of protest programmes, YSR Congress Party has organised Yuva Bheri in Visakhapatnam on September 22 in which thousands of college students from across North Coastal Andhra Pradesh attended. As many as 10 professors including former registrar of Andhra University PVGD Prasad Reddy was also present at the programme and explained to the students the importance of special status and why Andhra Pradesh needs it after bifurcation.
The State Government, taking a serious note of the same, asked the Andhra University management to examine to take action against those government servants who made comments against the governments.
“This is a trick. Ganta Srinivasa Rao should rethink the issue. There is a difference between a ‘teacher’ and a ‘professor’. As an expert, even he, being in the government, can express his opinion in view of public interest. Are the intellectuals of Andhra Pradesh sleeping?
During the Samaikyandhra movement, professors of all universities got onto the roads and participated in the agitation. Kodandaram, a senior faculty of Osmania University led the Telangana agitation! These are all funny tricks of the TDP government. Freedom of expression is a constitutional right,” a senior professor of Andhra University said.
Meanwhile, the management of Andhra University is learnt to be studying its faculty manuals to find out at least one reason to issue showcause notices to those professors who attended the Yuva Bheri.
Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Andhra University vice-chancellor GSN Raju were both unavailable for comment. However, what is clear as of now is that there is a dispute on the issue.
“The university cannot take any action on the faculty on the grounds of them having participated in a public meeting. The professors also have the right to express their views on any public platform. It is only a political stunt. As a professor, I have my own right to express my ideas on any forum. How can the university management take action for that? Nothing that we discussed there is anti-government!” a senior professor of Andhra University expressed angrily.