Although the contents of the report were not made public, it is learnt that the committee, apart from listing facts and sequence of events, has observed that the university could have handled the matter more sensitively. The committee submitted its report to the Ministry today, the release said.
Advertisement
Vemula’s alleged suicide following his suspension has snowballed into a major row with BJP’s rivals wading into it and demanding the removal of Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, accusing them of being responsible for the death.
The Congress on Friday termed the human resource ministry’s decision to constitute a judicial commission to probe the suicide of a Hyderabad Dalit student as “a shoddy attempt”. The Ministry has also chalked out various measures to address the issues faced by the students from disadvantaged background in higher educational institutions and prevent such incidents in future.
A special mechanism would be set up at the Ministry for receiving and taking expeditious action on the grievances from such students.
A programme will be launched for sensitising academic administrators about understanding and handling problems faced by socially, educationally and economically disadvantaged students. A special charter would be issued to all the higher education insitutions (HEIs) in this regard.
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 Sushil Kumar after the screening of a controversial documentary “Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai”. Other demands include Rs. 50 lakh compensation to Rohith’s family and employment for one family member. “We took this step in order to ensure that in the times to come no Dalit student faces what Rohith had to face”.
JAC said police and the university administration are about to forcefully evict them from the protest site and appealed to students to reach there in large numbers.
“Such a baseless and misleading statement coming from the Minister of HRD amounts to bringing down the morale of the Dalits holding administrative positions in this university as well as other universities”, it said.
Advertisement
“We want the immediate resignation of Smriti Irani, Dattatreya and Vice Chancellor Appa Rao”, National Student Union of India (NSUI) President Roji John said.
