“However, unfortunately, facts have been misrepresented and there has been a malicious attempt to paint this as a caste battle which it is not”. “The truth is that, it is not”, the HRD minister said addressing a news conference.
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BJP has accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of politicizing the suicide of a dalit student at Hyderabad Central University and insisted that the issue had nothing to do with the victim being from the backward community.
She flashed a letter, saying it was the only document police got while investigating the case. “It would be wrong to say that the Ministry has put any pressure on the Hyderabad University”.
Stating that his role was only limited to forwarding the representations customarily, Dattatraya also made it clear that he would have forwarded similar representations from any other students body had they approached him.
The incident has snowballed into a major issue with BJP rivals wading into it and demanding the removal of Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya, accusing them of being responsible for the student’s death. “The document being circulated as Rohith Vemula’s suicide note does not name any MP, minister, political organisation or university official”, Irani said in defence of the Labour minister.
“Taking representations from common people, constituents and forwarding it to concerned ministries is what I consider my earnest responsibility by being an elected people’s representative”, the Union Minister said in a statement. Her ministry then sent five reminders to the Vice Chancellor, Professor P Appa Rao, seeking information on what action was being taken.
Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula was found hanging from the ceiling of a room in the New Research Scholars’ Hostel of the central university on Sunday.
On Monday police fired water cannon to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered outside the government building where the minister works. “The HRD ministry acted within its jurisdiction”.
“And that means that there is no question, absolutely no question, on merits, for the vice-chancellor to remain here”, he said. “Their harassment by the University on flimsy grounds included discontinuation of the monthly stipend since July and suspension from the University since September previous year”, the council said in a press release.
– A group of students carrying placards and raising slogans protested in the tense University campus this morning.
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Bandaru Dattatreya is not the only MP who has raised concerns over the Hyderabad University issue.
