HYDERABAD: The media release by Andhra Pradesh police on the arrest of two former students of University of Hyderabad — Chandan Kumar Mishra and Ankala Prudviraj — for allegedly plotting to kill university vice-chancellor Prof Appa Rao Podile, mentioned that one of their motives was to lure more number of students to join the Maoist ranks.
Though the police version is debatable, a special issue of People’s War, a magazine published by the central committee of Communist Party of India (Maoist) in March last year, which was accessed by Express, spoke of tapping universities and colleges for recruiting a ‘potential force’ in the aftermath of the suicide by Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula at UoH which lead to countrywide protests by students targeting the BJP-led government at the Centre.
One article, titled ‘Revolutionary movement in India sustains retaliating the counter revolutionary offensive of the central and the state governments - the governments indulge in more fascist attacks to eliminate the movement’, in the magazine mentions, “After the suicide of Rohith Vemula, students hailing from Dalit, tribal and religious minorities from hundreds of universities and thousands of colleges across the country came together to fight against the Hindu fascist attacks and the imperialist feudal policies of Narendra Modi. Possibilities are on the rise for the consolidation of advanced forces as a potential force in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal class struggle in future.”
However, some experts with whom Express spoke said that they refused to believe the police version that the former UoH students arrested for allegedly plotting to kill the VC were Maoists. Academician-activist Prof G Haragopal said, “Every political party seeks to develop cadre among the youth in universities. There are many examples like NSUI of the Congress and ABVP of the BJP. TRS is trying to do the same. Maoists have also been trying to do the same for long. I do not believe that the two arrested students were planning to kill the vice-chancellor.
I have taught at Kakatiya University in Warangal when Maoists wielded strong influence on university campuses. Even in those times there never were attacks on or attempts to kill the vice-chancellor of a university. I do not believe police version that there was a plan to assassinate the VC and even if such a plan was made, it is condemnable.”
Dr PV Ramana, Research Fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA), said, “Maoists have been trying to infiltrate into institutions of higher education for long. It is not new.”
Prudviraj met Chandan on UoH campus, say cops
The AP police, in its media release on Saturday, said that it was on the university campus that Prudviraj had met Chandan Kumar Mishra, the other former UoH student arrested along him in the case, after which they allegedly met the Maoist leaders from Telangana.