Naxal influence at Osmania: Supreme Court wants proof

New Delhi: Are the Naxals influencing the movement for a new Telangana state at Osmania University? Prove it, says the Supreme Court. It's a claim that the Andhra Pradesh government and police have repeatedly made, now they have 24 hours to support their case.

At Osmania, in many ways the epicenter of the often-violent campaign for Telangana, professors and students deny the police's allegations.

At a students' rally, we find well-known balladeer Vimalakka. It is the presence of this sort of intellectual Naxal sympathizer that the police points to as a sign of the motivation and guidance being given by Naxals to students.

The police also refers to Maoist leader Kishenji's direct appeal to the students, as a part of an interview to a Telugu newspaper in December, in which he says, "I call upon the students of Osmania not to get cheated anymore."

Police sources also tell NDTV that Rs 7 lakh were reportedly given by a Maoist leader to some student leaders on 7th December. They also point out that recent protests by students have seen women at the frontlines as they clash with the police - typically, a Naxal strategy. 

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``I came here as a student in 1981. Till today no such incidents have taken place. No Naxals are on the campus. This particular movement is not of the naxals, it is a public movement,'' says Mohammed Ansari, a professor at Osmania University. Like others who work or study here, he believes the police is looking for excuses to suppress the students' movement. 

The police says Naxals are adept at operating with "an invisible hand."  But even a section of the state police accepts that this will only make its case harder to prove in the Supreme Court.

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