Osmania University denies permission for Rahul Gandhi’s visit

Citing security concerns, the Osmania University (OU) on Friday declined permission for Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the varsity campus on August 14, during which he was scheduled to interact with students.

In a communique to OU Students Joint Action Committee leader Koturi Manavatha Roy, university’s joint director N Venkateshwarlu said they were declining permission for Rahul Gandhi’s visit “due to security issues as he is under special security coverage.”

The Congress president is slated to be on a two-day visit to Telangana from August 13 to 14.

“We had invited Rahul as a thanksgiving gesture as he too was responsible for the formation of Telangana state. We told the university authorities that it would purely be an apolitical meeting which had nothing to do with the Congress party. Why should there be any objection to the authorities?” Roy asked.

He alleged that the university authorities acted under pressure from the state’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government.

“The OU students had earlier protested against the visit of KCR (CM K Chandrashekar Rao) during the university centenary celebrations and taken out rallies against the government’s indifference towards providing jobs. That is precisely why the government has been bringing pressure on the OU to deny permission for Rahul’s visit,” Roy said.

The university vice-chancellor could not immediately be reached for a comment.

The Congress hit out at the state government for allegedly putting pressure on the varsity to not give permission for Rahul’s visit. “It clearly shows KCR is afraid of him,” Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

TRS spokesman Karne Prabhakar refused to comment on Congress allegations. However, TRS-affiliated Telangana Rashtra Vidyarthi Samithi’s leader D Balaraj Yadav said neither the party nor its affiliated student unions had anything to do with the denial of permission to Rahul’s meeting.