Kavyasree Raghunath and Manasi M S
Student Activists
Telangana

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on 3 March regarding the ill-treatment and mental harassment of civil rights and human rights defenders Ms Kavyasree Raghunath and Ms. Manasi M S. Ms Raghunath is presently the general secretary and Ms Manasi MS is the cultural secretary of the Ambedkar Students; Association at the University of Hyderabad (UoH).

The UoH administration has denied hall tickets for Ph.D. entrance examination held on February 25, 2017, to Ms. Raghunath and Ms. Manasi, who had applied for the same. The reason for the ‘denial of hall tickets’, according to Proctor Mr.  Kona, is their active political participation in the struggle and campaign, ‘Justice for Rohith’ in UoH, which took place in the wake of the ‘institutional murder’ of Mr. Rohith Vemula in January 2016. They have now approached the EFLU administration for clarification on the non-availability of online hall tickets. However, the proctor refused to provide a convincing reply. He said, “You both were actively participating in all the protests involving ‘Justice for Rohith’ everywhere. I have all the photographs of you two on my table.”