Coming out all guns blazing against HRD Minister Smriti Irani, the AAP leader while addressing the agitating students here said her statement yesterday about Rohith Vemula’s death as well as subsequent agitation by the university’s students was a clear attempt to make it a caste issue for which she must apologise. Stating that “revocation” of suspension of the four expelled students was never their demand, workers of the Congress’ youth wing were stopped at Raisina Road here by the police when the protestors were on their way to the HRD minister’s residence and detained. “If these demands are not met soon, we will be forced to launch a nationwide stir against the Modi government at the Center”, said Anand Kumar, a JD-U activist.
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He claimed that the HRD Minister must have called Vice-Chancellor Prof Appa Rao Podile many times in connection with the issue. He has a moral and a constitutional duty to take action.
Congress slams decision: Reacting to the Human Resource Development Ministry’s decision to constitute a judicial commission, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that this is a shoddy attempt to brush aside the fundamental issues leading to the suicide.
He further said that the first pre-condition for a fair, independent and impartial probe by a sitting High Court judge is the sacking of union minister Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya and VC Apparao, as well as action against BJP MLC Ramchandra Rao and ABVP activists. “If the government has woken up now it is good but the Prime Minister should take some action against these persons, who are directly or indirectly responsible for the suicide”, he said.
He was reacting after the Prime Minister broke his silence, voicing his grief over the suicide of Rohith Vemula of Hyderabad University, an incident which has evoked widespread outrage.
The two-member fact-finding team, in its report to the HRD ministry, is learnt to have also found a lack of “sensitivity” shown in some areas by the Hyderabad University authorities in dealing with the events that led to the suicide of the dalit student. “A young son of my country, Rohith, was compelled to commit suicide, what his family must have gone through, I can feel the pain. It also establishes the completely illegal and unconstitutional pressure used by HRD ministry earlier leading to suspension of five Dalit scholars and consequent suicide of Rohith Vemula”.
“Third lie was when she justified hostel suspension of the students by saying that it was hostel warden’s decision”.
Rohith, a second-year research scholar of Science, Technology and Society Studies Department, and others were suspended from the hostel last year following allegations that they attacked ABVP leader Sushil Kumar after the screening of a controversial documentary “Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai”.
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The 28-year-old victim from Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district was found hanging at the hostel room of one of his friends around 7:30 pm on Sunday.
