After bloody 'beef festival'; more such festivals planned

Hyderabad, Apr 17: With the ‘beef festival’ planned by Dalit student Unions in the already volatile Osmania University, sparking off violence, there seem to be more such festivals planned. Calling it an overall success, the Dalit unions are intending to make it an annual event similar to the one organized in Central Universities.

The University of Hyderabad has been organizing beef festivals over the past few years with the Dalit students expressing their keenness to organize such festivals with the active support of student bodies and professors across the state.

The festivals organized at the Osmania University recently saw as many as 2000 students participating from Osmania University, English and Foreign Languages University and Hyderabad University.

An earlier attempt to organize a beef festival at the Eflu was thwarted after some ABVP activists threw away the cooked food in protest.

Mohan Dharavath, a Dalit student leader at Eflu, has been quoted as saying, “In Osmania, Eflu and UoH, a large number of students eat beef. It is our right, as protected under the Indian Constitution, to practice our food habits. We see no wrong in conducting beef festivals to express our cultural identity and traditions.”

The added fact that such food items were denied in hostels were seen as a form of apartheid.

Monday’s violent incident also saw a student being brutally attacked and stabbed. The student with allegiance to the ABVP was stabbed by fellow students at the hostel on Sunday night.

OneIndia News