Activist Medha Pakar on Sunday called upon students in various universities across the country to come together and devise a strategy to take up issues afflicting the country.
Addressing the media here on Sunday, Ms. Patkar said the Centre was using the ABVP to take over spaces in universities across the country. “ABVP can’t take away that space just because it has the support of the BJP and RSS. There are students in varsities, whose thoughts are based on the ideology of Gandhi, Marx, Lohia,” she added.
Ms. Patkar was prevented from entering the UoH campus later in the day and addressed students at the gate.
She questioned the return of University of Hyderabad (UoH) Vice Chancellor P. Appa Rao to the campus even as an enquiry into the death of research scholar Rohith Vemula was underway, and stated that he and the Centre wanted to create ‘controversies’.
Terming Rohith’s death a ‘martyrdom’, Ms Patkar said he had given a voice to all those fighting caste discrimination in the country. “He had committed suicide as he was socially boycotted, because of Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya’s interference,” she alleged, adding that they were trying to create divisions in campuses.
Slamming the Centre for ‘privatising’ education, Ms. Patkar wondered where Dalit and tribal students would study if they did not have access to education. “They cannot pay lakhs of rupees to get education, which is why we need reservations, along with a support system,” Ms. Patkar said, adding that the Centre had ‘instigated’ the incidents at the UoH campus on March 22 after Prof. Appa Rao returned. “The recent agitation by the Patels for a quota in education is also the result of the development model failing. The deprivation is spreading to other sectors as well,” said Ms. Patkar.
After the press conference, the social activist participated in a meeting at Lamakaan in the evening, after which she left for the UoH campus.
Addressing the students outside the main gate, which has now become an ad hoc gathering point, Ms. Patkar affirmed her solidarity with the students
