“He was dean of physics when another Dalit student, Senthil Kumar, committed suicide in 2008”.
Advertisement
On 23rd of January, in a move made very evidently to pacify the Dalit community, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, but his statements on Vemula’s death received flak from various sections. “I went to meet Rohith’s mother along with two professors who informed her that I had come and wanted to meet her. But she conveyed to them that she will meet me only on the campus along with four other students”, he had told PTI on Friday. There will be reasons, there will be politics (surrounding it) but the fact remains that a mother has lost her son.
Seven students who were on hunger strike in University of Hyderabad for the last four days were forcibly shifted to hospital on Saturday. However, they have refused to accept it and instead demanded justice for the deceased Rohith.
The umbrella group of various student organisations said it would continue the protest till justice is done to Rohith’s family. “This problem in Hyderabad University is not an isolated one”, says T.N. Seema, Rajya Sabha MP and also Member of Court at the Hyderabad Central University, as she takes up the stage amidst protesting students and faculty members demanding answers from the Vice Chancellor.
Hyderabad University’s incharge Vice Chancellor Vipin Srivastava, accused by the SC/ST faculty of having a “deep involvement” in the death of a dalit student in 2008, today said “the previous matter was sorted out” even as he termed the situation in the aftermath of Rohit Vemula’s suicide as a “communication gap”.
The HRD ministry is vividly shaken by the stormy response to its diktat over central universities as the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student from Central University of Hyderabad, began to spread to other universities, especially JNU in Delhi.
Advertisement
Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Appa Rao along with a few others were named in the FIR lodged in connection with the case.
