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Venkaiah flays politics over Vemula’s death

Taking a dig at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders who thronged the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), after Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s death, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said they tried to play politics without making a sincere effort to address the core issue.

“Ten (students) committed suicide in Hyderabad University (earlier). Some of them were Dalits, to say in their (opposition’s) language. But no leader came then. Nobody showed sympathy because they were in power then. All came (in January) as if they have come for a pilgrimage,” he said.

The politicians chose to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi, instead of trying to establish social harmony and prevent recurrence of such incidents, he said.

“What is the problem? Why did he commit suicide? What were the circumstances? Whether the allegations are correct? How to resolve the issue? How to bring about change in the system? Who is responsible? What action is to be taken...without saying how to move ahead together, they said ‘Modi’. When being pointed out that 10 students had died when they were in power for 10 years, they said those things happened during our (NDA) regime and they happen routinely,” he said.

The Union Urban Development Minister was speaking at a ‘Kisan Gram Sabha’ at Bowrampet village on the outskirts of the city as part of Centre’s ‘Gram Uday se Bharat Uday’ initiative.

He said caste and religion should be separated from politics, adding minority appeasement has been going on in the country for political benefits.

Stressing on establishing social harmony, he said religion is a matter of choice and also batted for unrestricted entry of women into temples.

He quoted Mahatma Gandhi’s that the country’s development was incomplete without development of rural areas. The Minister said Rs 35,984 crore has been allocated to agriculture in the Budget.
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