Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today targeted Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya over the suicide by a Dalit scholar saying the Ministers and the Vice Chancellor have “not acted fairly” that forced him to take the extreme step.
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Here is the exclusive leaked video of Rohith Vemula who is the Ph.D. student from HCU committed suicide for engaging a serious war with ABVP students. “This is an issue which is being investigated by local police and sub judice in the High Court”, she told the media here.
Irani attempted to defend Bandaru Dattatreya, who has been charged with abetting Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide.
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”. On Tuesday the university vice-chancellor described Vemula as “bright student” and said they were saddened by the tragic incident.
Seeking to turn the table on Congress, Irani also cited a letter written to her by Congress MP V. Hanumantha Rao in November 2014 and said he has also mentioned about suicides of students of marginalised sections that had been happening in the University during the past four years. “In cases, misconstrued information and misrepresentation of facts have led to treat issue as a caste battle”, she said while addressing a press conference here.
Students, continuing their indefinite protest, including hunger strike by seven of them, burnt effigy of Irani to condemn her remarks.
The “central secretariat manual of office procedure” says the government must acknowledge a VIP reference within 15 days of receiving it and reply within another 15 days, the spokesperson said. “We took the letters received as routine letters”, he said, adding “there was no phone call from either of the ministers or any ministry official”. Rubbishing the analogy, Rao said his letter talked about harassment of Dalit students, while Dattatreya raised “anti-national” activities on campus.
On the other hand, Nandanam Susheel Kumar on Thursday demanded a “fair” inquiry and rejected claims that he had lied about being assaulted by Rohith and other members of the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) at Hyderabad University.
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When Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale came to the campus, he had to face the ire of students who asked him to first withdraw support to the BJP-led NDA government. “I will comment only after I see the report”, she said. I want to meet Rohit’s mother.
