'US must stop insulting stranded Indian students'

Humiliating treatment of stranded Indian students of the scam-hit Tri Valley University in the United States has left their families back home seething with anger and worried about the future of their wards.

500 of the 1500 stranded students of the 'sham university' belong to Andhra Pradesh and their families were running from pillar to post to ensure that their children get a fair deal.

While most of the families are refusing to come out in public on the issue, some have burst out alleging that the US immigration authorities were treating the Indian students like criminals and animals.

"What is the fault of theses students? They have broken no laws. Every thing from admission in the university to the visa process was done legally", said the parent of a student.

 Karthikeyan, whose sister was among the stranded students in the US, said that the students were being punished for the wrong doing of the university management.

"Our demand is that they should immediately remove the electronic tag and enable them to lead a normal life. If Tri Valley university did not operate classes, what is the fault of the students?" he wondered.

Karthikeyan however did not reveal the name of his sister or the course in which she had taken the admission in June last year. Apparently, every student like the girl paid Rs 3 to 4 lakh to secure admission in what turned out to be a dodgy university. Worst was the case of the students who took bank loans to go to the US for studies.

Meanwhile, pained over the humiliation of the Indian students in the US, all political parties joined hands in urging the Central government for political intervention to get justice.

An all party round table conference organised by the Communist Party of India in Hyderabad on Tuesday passed a resolution demanding that the Central government should adopt a tough stand and force the US authorities to remove the radio tag from the students' bodies.

"This is inhuman and cannot be tolerated. It is a question of self respect of all the Indians", said Dr K Narayana, CPI state secretary. He expressed anger and anguish that government of India was not doing enough to help the students.

"We are not beggars. Our government should clearly tell the US administration that if they don't put an end to the harassment of our students we will reconsider our relations with the US", he said.

Narayana said that the students had secured the admission in the US university by taking loans from the banks and they should be protected.

The resolution demanded that the state government should send a cabinet minister to the US to help the students in getting admission in some other universities and stop their deportation.

Congress leader Shyam Mohan asked that if 'Tri Valley university was bogus, how the authorities in the US allowed it to enroll students and how visas were issued to them on the basis of the documents of the university?'

Representatives of CPI-M, Lok Satta, several students and other mass organisations also attended the conference,