HRD officials claimed that after Dattatreya, MP from Secunderabad, wrote the letter, the Ministry only followed the standard practice by writing to the university on September 3, seeking the “issues raised by the MoS may be examined and facts intimated”.
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Earlier in the day, hitting back at political rivals, HRD Minister Smriti Irani had accused them of attempting to “instigate” students all over the country on the issue and dismissed demands for her resignation. “We ask her to apologise”, Congress spokesperson Deepender Hooda told ANI.
Irani, flanked by senior Cabinet colleagues Thaawar Chand Gehlot and Nirmala Sitharaman, demolished allegations that her ministry had put pressure on the University authorities to take action against Rohith Vemula and other Dalit students, prompting Vemula to commit suicide on Sunday. “Suicide of Rohit Vemula has nothing to do with Dalit issues or rights just because he was a Dalit”.
The next two reminders were written by the deputy secretary and were titled “Anti-National activities in Hyderabad Central University premises and violent attack on Sri Nandanam Susheel Kumar”. “Union minister Dattatreya and BJP MLA Ramchander Rao should face action as per the police FIR registered against them and should be sacked from their posts. Instead Modiji’s ministers got five dalit students ostracised and suspended”.
Fresh protests today rocked the HCU over the suicide even as several politicians headed to the city including YSR Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury. As well as the University Vice Chancellor who has been named as an active participant in the harassment of the five rusticated students.
Expressing solidarity with the protesting Hyderabad university students, the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday said it was part of the fight against “intolerance”. “If they (Congress) had fixed the problem four years ago, perhaps Rohith’s life could have been saved”, Irani said.
“According to central secretariat manual of office procedure, an MP’s letter has to be acknowledged in 15 days”. “Rohit has committed suicide, but the condition for his suicide was created by the vice-chancellor, the minister in Delhi, and the institution”, the Congress leader said, without naming the Minister.
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As the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a dalit student of Hyderabad snowballed into a big political issue, Human Resource and Development Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday said that “misconstrued information” and “misrepresentation of facts” have led to treat issue as a caste battle.
