The overall success of the beef festival, held at Osmania University campus on Sunday, despite the violent incidents marring it, has led Dalit student unions to aim to make it an annual event like it is at Central universities. Students of the University of Hyderabad, for instance, have been conducting beef festivals over the past few years. Dalit students also want to mobilise support from student bodies and professors to organise such festivals in universities across the state.
About 2,000 students from Osmania University, English and Foreign Languages University and UoH participated in the event. Things went well except at the end, when some students tried to disrupt the festival by pelting stones and attacking students. Attempts to hold a similar festival last year at the Eflu were foiled by ABVP activists who stormed into the kitchen and threw away the cooked food. Mohan Dharavath, a Dalit student leader at Eflu, who was pleased by the large turnout on Sunday, said, “We will not be cowed down by such attacks.” The plan is to hold such events in a phased manner in other varsities too.
“In Osmania, Eflu and UoH, a large number of students eat beef,” said Dharavath. “It is our right, as protected under the Indian Constitution, to practice our food habits. We see no wrong in conducting beef festivals to express our cultural identity and traditions,” he added. To deny them the item in hostel messes was a form of apar-theid in their own land, students felt. Meanwhile, OU beef festival became a big trend on twitter.