The Osmania University in Hyderabad will don political colours with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi insisting on visiting the university during his tur of Hyderabad. Rahul Gandhi has planned to meet the unemployed youth and discuss the issue of unemployment with them. The ruling TRS is strongly opposing this move. TRS MLA and former students leader Balka Suman has criticized the move and said that there was no need to bring politics into the university.
Osmania University has a special place in Telangana’s collective memory and it has played a key role in the agitations for Telangana. Its students blocked roads and held massive rallies to mobilise support for the formation of the Telangana state. The university was a pillar of support for the TRS.
But, things soon changed after the state was formed and the TRS came to power. There is total disillusionment against the TRS as the government had failed utterly in creating jobs. The anger against the TRS government was so much that when KCR visited the university in 2017 along with the then President Pranab Mukherjee, there were wide-ranging protests. After that no politician dared to visit the University.
Meanwhile, the students unions in OU have announced that they would welcome Rahul Gandhi into the University and said they would like to listen to him. Rahul Gandhi, who will be in Warangal on May 6 and 7, is also planning to visit Kakatiya University to interact with the students. The TRS is opposing this move too, but the Congress leadership is bent on holding meetings in the universities.
