Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, along with former Chief Minister of Meghalaya and Congress leader P.A. Sangma, on Saturday sat on fast with the agitating students of the University of Hyderabad (UoH).
The students are demanding that the University’s acting vice-chancellor Prof. Vipin Srivastava and P. Appa Rao, whose name is there in the police complaint lodged in connection with the death of research scholar Rohith Vemula, quit their posts for their complicity in the suicide of the scholar.
Mr. Gandhi tweeted: "I am here today at the request of Rohith's friends and family, to stand with them in their fight for justice."
About 20 students from Osmania university also join the protest, demanding the resignation of the vice-chancellor.
Vemula's mother Radhika, brother Raja, and three of the five students who were suspended — Sunkanna, Seshaiah, and Vijay — are also part of the protest demonstration.
Meanwhile, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has >called for a bandh of colleges in Telangana in protest against the “politics over dead bodies” done by Mr. Gandhi in the Hyderabad Central University over the Rohith Vemula issue.
This is Mr. Gandhi's second visit to Hyderabad since Vemula was found hanging in the varsity’s hostel room.
Interim V-C goes on leave
Prof. Vipin Srivastava, who assumed charge as interim vice-chancellor, has > gone on leave for four days . A university communique issued by the Registrar's office said next senior most professor Dr. M.Periasamy shall perform the duties of the vice-chancellor of the university till further orders in terms of the Statute 1A (7) of the University.
