Students mark a vigil after a Dalit research scholar committed suicide over alleged sexual allegations against him. (Photo courtesy: Pragnya Chayani)
Fresh protests erupted on the University of Hyderabad campus on Tuesday over the alleged suicide by a dalit scholar even as members of a social outfit tried to hold a demonstration outside the residence of Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who has been accused in the suicide case.
– Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, visited the university. He spent some time interacting with students over the issue.
– Union Labour Minister Dattatreya and Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor Appa Rao and three others were named in an FIR lodged with the Cyberabad police over the alleged suicide of the dalit student.
– Students gathered in the administrative block of the university and shouted slogans, seeking ‘justice’ for the dalit student. Police said the situation was peaceful. “Just a small group of students gathered and shouted slogans. Situation is peaceful here,” Gachibowli police inspector J Ramesh Kumar said.
– Showing solidarity with Hyderabad students, Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) students are also staging a hunger strike to protest against the government.
– Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal attacked the Modi government and demanded the sacking of ministers responsible for the suicide. “It’s not suicide. It’s murder. It’s murder of democracy, social justice n equality.Modi ji shd sack ministers n aplogoize to the nation,” he tweeted. He also wrote, “Modi govt constitutionally duty bound to uplift dalits. Instead Modi ji’s ministers got five dalit students ostracised n suspended(sic).”
– The issue took a political turn with allegations that the extreme action was a result of discrimination against dalit students at the behest of Dattatreya, who had written a letter to HRD Minister Smriti Irani, seeking action against their “anti-national acts”. Rohit Vemula was among the five research scholars who were suspended by the university in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader.
– The body of V Rohith, a Dalit PhD scholar who was found hanging at the Central University’s
hostel room in the campus on Sunday.
– Police intervened to shift the body from the campus to the hospital for autopsy as students resisted their attempts, demanding justice to the student’s family. They also blamed university authorities and a central minister for the suicide. Large number of policemen were deployed on the campus to prevent violence as Dalit and leftist student groups have called for the university shut down.
– Rohith, a second year research scholar of science, technology and society studies department, was found hanging in a room in New Research Scholars’ hostel. He used the blue banner of ASA for hanging. In a five-page suicide note recovered from the room, he mentioned how he always looked at the stars and dreamt of being a writer and an established academic.
– Hailing from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Rohith came from a poor family and was University Grants Commission’s Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) holder. In the suicide note, he also wrote that he had not got his JRF funds for past six months.
– He along with four other suspended students had been staging protest on the campus for last 15 days. They were sleeping in open to protest expulsion from the hostel. On Sunday, Rohith left the camp to spend the day in NRS hostel room. He was found hanging at 7.30 p.m.
– It was in August last year that the five students were suspended following a scuffle with activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). It all started when ASA staged a protest on the campus to condemn ABVP’s attack on the screening of the documentary ‘Muzzafarnagar Baqi Hai’ at Delhi University.
– The research scholars were expelled from their hostel in December. They were denied access to hostels and other buildings on the campus except their classroom, library and conferences and workshops related to their subject of study They were evicted from their rooms on January and since then they were forced to sleep in a makeshift tent on the campus.
(With Agency Inputs)