Hyderabad: Trouble is brewing at the Post Graduate College of Law, Osmania University (OU), over the installation of a statue of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, ahead of the birth anniversary celebrations of the father of the Constitution on April 14.
After the college management approved the statue installation, the OU Registrar refused permission for the same and warned of strict action if any statue was installed.
A small bust of Dr Ambedkar was unofficially installed by students in front of the college in 2016.
The college management recently decided to officially replace it with a 7-foot-tall statue in a seated position and spent Rs 3.5 lakh on it. However, when the Registrar was notified of the decision, he sent a circular stating that the varsity had decided not to permit installation of any statue on the campus.
Prof. Gali Vinod Kumar, dean, faculty of law at the college, said they had requested the varsity’s executive council to approve the installation of the statue.
“The council too has not approved the decision because of misguidance by the VC. Dr Ambedkar is a national figure, and another reason for his statue to be here is that OU had bestowed an honorary doctorate on Dr Ambedkar in 1953,” Prof. Vinod Kumar said.
The Registrar’s circular has not gone down well with the students too, who are also supporting installation of the statue. “I will invite all student organisations and we will visit the VC once again and try our level best to convince him. Otherwise, the students will do what they had done in 2016,” Prof. Kumar said.
