Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s silence at the much touted centenary celebrations of Osmania University on Wednesday has raised several eyebrows.

The big day at the varsity, which was the seat of protests demanding a separate Telangana State a few years ago, turned out to be a short, matter-of-fact affair.

Only Vice-Chancellor S Ramachandram spoke, delivering introductory remarks, after which President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated year-long celebrations. Even Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan, who is the OU Chancellor, remained mum.

Behind the abruptness of Wednesday’s proceedings — which, normally, should have been marked by a celebratory touch of honouring achievers and eulogising the great strides OU had made — was the simmering discontent among the students.

The campus was pregnant with the prospect of protests if KCR, himself an alumnus, spoke. Similarly, Governor Narasimhan, a former Intelligence Bureau chief with experience in overseeing the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and after, chose not to make remarks, thereby giving a go-by to traditions.

There seems to be no love lost between the university, which was the ‘hub’ of strident protests and loud demands for a separate Telangana, and KCR, whose Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), reaped rich dividends at the hustings ahead of the State’s formation in 2014. The central demands of the students were jobs, and justice to the region’s aspirations. Once in power, KCR roused expectations, but has been short on fulfilling any demands.

That the TRS chief’s maiden visit to the campus took place nearly three years after Telangana came into being, and that the normally irrepressible and popular mass speaker ended up quiet, sends signals that KCR’s ties with students are at a low, political analysts say.

The CM had, very early in his innings, earned the wrath of the student community by taking away lands of the varsity. It was successfully resisted. And even while making little progress in addressing the burning issue of jobs for the varsity’s students, who come from all 31 districts of Telangana, the KCR government opened up a new front of conflict by attacking M Kodandaram, an OU professor who had played a pivotal role in bringing together parties and students under two Joint Action Committees during the Statehood movement. By attempting to isolate Kodandaram, and using high-handed means to stem the protests that has been raising, KCR has only harmed his ties with the student community.

OU’s students have been integral to Telangana’s decades-long statehood struggle, protesting, suffering police action, sacrificing academics, and even laying down their lives to channelise attention to the cause.

And although the KCR government has announced a ₹200 crore budget for the university, with a sizeable amount earmarked for the centenary celebrations, student and teacher organisations allege money is hard to come by.

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