The HCU Land Grab: A Fight for Education and Environment
Kripa Maria George
Students of our country are today at the forefront of various movements against attack on education despite the repressive measures from the State and the administration. Their commitment and resistance is giving hope to the country. The protests led by the University of Hyderabad Students’ Union and SFI against the Telangana’s Congress Government’s land grab of 400acres of University Land is a case in point.
Established in 1974 during the peak of the Telangana movement, HCU was envisioned under the Six-Point Formula, with a constitutional amendment facilitating its creation. Initially operating from Sarojini Naidu’s residence, Golden Threshold, the university was later granted 2,300 acres for educational purposes. HCU, one of the premier public educational institutions in the country where many students from marginalized and historically oppressed communities study, has been a model of progress over the past 50 years, producing distinguished researchers, IAS and IPS officers, and ranking among the world’s top educational institutions in the latest QS rankings.
Born from the sacrifice of 369 student martyrs, HCU is also renowned for its progressive politics and leading revolutionary movements like the Rohith Vemula movement. Be it Palestine, CAA-NRC or Fee Hike, HCU has always been vocal on issues that affect our world, country, and education. Any attack on such a university will firstly affect students from marginalised and poor communities. At a time when there is a nationwide demand to increase government funding for education, the Congress Government is opting to sell off a public university’s land to fill government coffers. They have not even considered the harmful impacts it can have on the society, environment, and education.
Moreover, the auction of this 400-acre plot threatens Hyderabad’s environmental balance. The HCU campus is a biodiversity hotspot, home to 734 plant species, 10 mammal, 15 reptile, and 220 bird species, including protected wildlife. It also has rock formations and three lakes integral to Hyderabad’s ecological heritage. Known as Hyderabad’s “green lungs,” this urban forest is under threat at a time when pollution and global warming are critical concerns.
The protests began on March 13 with a march to the university’s East Campus, where the 400 acres was slated for auction. The Students’ Union, Teachers’ Union, and Non-Teaching Staff Union formed a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to lead the movement. However, the Telangana Congress government, dismissing the rising protests, proceeded with the project and attempted to suppress the agitation. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy insulted the students in the state assembly, stating, “The campus doesn’t have deer or tigers, but cunning foxes opposing the state’s development.” In response, students burned the government’s effigy in protest, only to face police brutality. On March 30, taking advantage of a three-day court holiday, the government deployed over 30 bulldozers to begin deforestation. When the Students’ Union General Secretary, Nihad Sulaiman, SFI President and Secretary and others questioned this, they were detained by police. A subsequent protest march was met with heavy police deployment and brutal attacks, with over 50 students detained and charged with fabricated cases. Two students, including SFI activist Naveen Errram, a PhD scholar from Karimnagar, one of the backward districts of Telangana, and a father of two young children, remained in remand for more than 10 days for demanding the release of detained students. Additionally, journalist Sumith Jha, an alumni and social activist who was covering the protests, was also detained. Students were injured and their clothes torn. They were attacked at their own home, for protecting their home.
Since March 30, 11 FIRs have been filed against 56 students involved in the protests. Despite this, SFI led Students’ Union, supported by all campus community , started a sit-in protest. The Teachers’ Union and JAC, demanding an end to deforestation and accountability from the administration when rallied to east campus, faced further police violence. Environmental activists and political parties leaders including CPIM State Secretary who arrived in solidarity were also brutally detained. Not satisfied by the Police brutality and seeing the unwavering strength of the students and the increasing support to their resistance by the people of Telangana, the Congress Government initiated multiple misinformation campaigns. Students were projected as mere initiators of trouble who had attacked the Police. In fact, the DCP in his press release had claimed that Students attacked police unprovoked by sticks and stones while in reality Police did a brutal lathi charge on the protesting students. Students who were arrested were claimed not to be students, sowing seeds to the narrative of the government that the protesting students and teachers are mere trouble makers working at the instructions of anti-government elements.
It’s no surprise that these brutal suppressions of free speech and protest rights are occurring in Congress-ruled Telangana. The Congress during its tenure in various state and in central government have been notorious for its attack on forest land, especially tribal land in the interests of crony capitalists. A trend continued by the current BJP Government to the utmost perfection. The Congress leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, who has, in recent times, been donning the garb of a socialist and has been critical against the central government’s fascist tactics and crony capitalism, has not even responded to the JAC’s open letter asking for his intervention and to stand by his earlier statements. The Telangana government taking inputs from the central government has filed FIRs against the BRS IT cell and had targeted activists and celebrities for social media posts.
An interim stay order from the Supreme Court provided temporary relief, but the campus remained militarized till last month, with students living in an atmosphere of fear. Following the Supreme Court’s stay, the Telangana government proposed a new plan to convert the 2,300-acre campus into an “ecological park” instead of an IT hub. The aim of the Government is clear. Remove the resistance completely and fill it’s coffers. But the SC, after taking a suo-moto case has in multiple hearings slammed the Congress Government for over-riding environmental laws holding it responsible for the land grab. The facts brought out by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) justified the stance of the Students’ Union. The CEC report states that the Kancha Gachibowli land is a forest area and that the Government escaped the necessary survey that could have proven so by shamelessly showing less land in official documents by parcelling the land. It also stated that the land belongs to the University of Hyderabad and should be used for educational purposes and conservation. In fact, after the report, now the Forest Department has slapped Rs 5 lakhs fine on TGIIC and seized 3 excavators for the crime it committed. The Supreme Court also threatened the Telangana Government officials with jail and instructed them to start reforestation initiatives immediately.
The struggles waged by the students, led by the UoH Students’ Union saw fruit. In 2022, when a parcel of the same land was being grabbed by the then State Government, the BJP Government had refused the request of CPIM MP Elamaram Kareem to discuss the issue in the Parliament.
But this time, even they were forced to take a stand. During the struggle, the right-wing forces on campus attempted to derail the movement multiple times. At many points they tried to create division and confusion among the students who had gathered under the banner of Union. Students rejected the ABVP for their hypocrisy and their silence on large scale deforestation of forests done by the BJP governments in Andaman, Mumbai and Chhattisgarh. Even when they joined the JAC protests, they tried to create ruckus and destabilize the movement. The ABVP was forced out of their slumber by the tremendous support for the continuous struggle of the Students Union. The BJP tried to take advantage of the situation by using Godi medias to portray the ABVP as leading the protest, while this was not at all the case. The University students were clear in their stand and had rejected them remembering that the same BJP Government had not taken cognizance when in 2022 a part of the same land was being grabbed by the then State Government and had even denied the request of CPIM MP Elamaram Kareem to discuss the issue in the Parliament.
The NSUI, which lost their legitimacy on campus as a progressive student organization also tried to delegitimise the Union Protest at multiple points. The initial protest were called by them as “immature escalation”. After being rejected by the students community, the NSUI started its propaganda through their alliance partner AISA. The AISA had in the 2024 Union elections, formed an alliance with NSUI disregarding their own stance on the organization as a right-wing one. Once the movement began AISA started targeted misinformation and anti-campaign against the Union while being mum on their own alliance partner’s betrayal of the students community. They started taking up similar narratives of NSUI and tried to weaken the movement. Despite all, the Student community kept their faith in the Union and SFI who has been continuously at the forefront in the fight for public education.
Today, HCU, a beacon of resistance against injustice, needs the nation’s support in this fight. In an era where schools are being shut down and public education institutions are told to generate their own funds, this is a fight for survival. We will continue the struggle, with the conviction and understanding that this struggle is not just for HCU but for public education; and against land mafias eyeing university land. The HCU struggle is a clarion call: resistance must begin now.
Inquilab Zindabad