Protests over the alleged suicide by a Dalit research scholar, Rohith Vemula, escalated on Tuesday with several parties, including Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), demanding the ouster of Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who has been accused in the case.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the University of Hyderabad on Tuesday and interacted with students. He targeted HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Dattatreya, saying that the ministers and the vice-chancellor (VC) have “not acted fairly”, forcing Vemula to take the extreme step. However, he refrained from naming Irani.
Gandhi alleged that the institution instead of operating fairly used its power to “crush” the freedom of students to express. “The vice-chancellor and the Minister in Delhi have not acted fairly. What is the result? The result is that the youth, who came here to improve the country, to learn and to express himself was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself. Certainly, he has committed suicide, but conditions for his suicide were created by the vice-chancellor, the minister and the institution,” he said, demanding “strictest punishment” for vice-chancellor and the minister. Vemula, who hanged himself on Sunday, was among the five research scholars suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August 2015. Apart from Dattatreya, Hyderabad University VC Appa Rao and three others have also been named in the FIR lodged in the case.
The HRD Ministry had sent its first letter on September 3, 2015 to the university, and reminders were later sent on September 24, October 6, October 20 and November 19.
“It would be wrong to say that the ministry has put any pressure on the Hyderabad University. The ministry had only followed the procedure as per the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure. According to the procedure, if there is a VIP reference, it has to be acknowledged in 15 days and another 15 days may be taken to reply to it. Since no response was coming from the University, the Ministry had to send reminders,” HRD Ministry spokesperson Ghanshyam Goel said.
Meanwhile, the BJP hit back at Gandhi and accused him of politicising the case. BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao attacked Gandhi for “unprincipled” behaviour, saying it was the Congress that had “harassed” Dalit icon BR Ambedkar “all his life” and was now trying to project itself as champion of Dalit cause. “Suicide of Rohith Vemula has nothing to do with Dalit issues or rights just because he was a Dalit. It is merely politicising of the issue,” he tweeted.
To this, Gandhi said: “There is no question of politicising it. But what has happened here is that some youngsters wanted to express certain ideas. The institution instead of operating fairly used its power to crush,” demanding Rs 5-crore compensation for Vemula’s family.
Rao also hit out at the Delhi CM, saying, “Kejriwal, like always, is trying to fish in troubled waters in the politicized issue of Rohit Vemula suicide!” Meanwhile, activists of Telengana Jagruti Youth Front, an outfit headed by TRS MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha, raised slogans outside Dattatreya’s house at Ram Nagar and blamed him for Vemula’s death.
“Thirty seven of the protesters were taken into preventive custody when they held a dharna near the Union Minister’s house,” DCP (Central Zone) VB Kamalasan Reddy said. However, they were later let off.
The protest spread to other parts of the country as well. Around 50 Dalit students of Central University of Gujarat staged a peaceful protest in Gandhinagar. Terming Vemula’s suicide as an “institutional murder”, they demanded a free and fair inquiry into the matter.
In Pune, students of the Film and Television Institute (FTII) staged on a hunger strike outside the institute’s gate. In Mumbai, students staged a protest outside the office of Mumbai University in Kalina to condemn the Dalit student’s death. Students’ wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also staged protests in various areas in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, a two-member Trinamool Congress delegation, led by party MP and national spokesperson Derek O’Brien, has headed to Hyderabad to express solidarity with the protesting students.
Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale would be visiting the student’s family in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
A delegation led by Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Parliamentary Board chairman Chirag Paswan and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother Ramchandra Paswan, also left for Hyderabad to meet Vemula’s family. LJP is BJP’s ally at the Centre.