A Dalit research scholar has filed a police complaint against the Proctor of English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) alleging that he was stopped from entering the campus during the Ambedkar birth anniversary celebrations.
In his complaint, filed at the Osmania University Police Station, Koonal Doogal said he was dragged out of the campus by the security guards while he was attending the celebrations. Doogal who belongs to the Julaha community in Punjab, is associated with the Dalit Adivasi Bahujan Minority Association (DAMA). He is also working as a guest faculty at the University of Hyderabad (UoH).
UoH has been on the boil ever since Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar, committed suicide after being suspended along with four other students over a scuffle with an ABVP student.
EFLU Proctor Prakash Kona Reddy said Doogal's entry into the campus had been barred since March 30. “Although he submitted his thesis in September last year, he has been a key member in a lot of anti-university activities,” he said according to reports. “Therefore, I sought permission from the vice-chancellor and restricted his entry into the campus,” Reddy was quoted as saying by the TOI.
Doogal said that four security guards had dragged him out from the venue in the full glare of fellow students and teachers. He said he was treated like a criminal causing public humiliation and embarrassment to him.
Although security guards said that they had received an order but Doogal continued to insist that it was an arbitrary attack on him as a Dalit student.
Doogal's subject for his PhD is on “caste and religious politics in contemporary Punjab”.
