Hyderabad University Protest A 'Smoke-And-Mirrors Campaign' That Ignores BRS Misrule: Telangana Minister D Sridhar Babu

The ongoing protests at Hyderabad Central University (HCU) are being presented as a righteous fight to protect green spaces. However, the ruling Congress party thinks that the protests are a smoke-and-mirrors campaign that conveniently ignores the decade-long destruction of Telangana’s environment at the hands of the BRS government. 

Telangana's Industries minister D Sridhar Babu has claimed that between 2014 and 2023, Telangana’s environment was pillaged in broad daylight. Babu claimed that the loudest voices today were silent when 12.12 lakh trees were cut, when 11,422 hectares of forest land were diverted, and when hills, lakes, and biodiversity corridors were destroyed to make way for high-profile vanity projects.

He termed opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi's claims about protecting the University of Hyderabad (UOH) land, if voted back to power, a joke. Babu called it hypocrisy while reiterating that the Congress government has no plans to encroach upon the university land. 

Despite this, BRS leaders continued to mislead students, using them as tools to serve their political interests. By circulating doctored images and edited videos, they attempted to incite unrest on social media platforms. The minister firmly denounced these deceptive practices and called on the BRS to refrain from manipulating students for political gain.

“BRS is not fighting for UoH land, students, or environmental conservation; their real goal is to disrupt development, stall industries, and create unrest,” he added.

Reaffirming that the Kancha Gachibowli land is government-owned, he questioned the BRS's intentions, asking why the party remained silent on these land parcels for an entire decade if they genuinely cared. "Instead of protecting public resources, they handed over land in the surrounding areas to benamis. Their sudden activism today is nothing but political theatrics.” 

The minister shared that one such project was the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, a colossal blunder of engineering and environmental planning that cost over Rs 1 lakh crore and failed to deliver its intended outcomes. In its wake, it left thousands of acres of forest land flattened, displacing wildlife and tribal populations — with not a single protest from today’s self-proclaimed defenders of nature.

"The people of Telangana are not blind. They remember the forests lost, the hills razed, and the land sold. And they deserve better than scripted outrage over HCU, while the real environmental destruction goes unpunished and unspoken," said Babu.