The fourth day, after research scholar of University of Hyderabad (UoH), Rohith Vemula, committed suicide, saw senior leaders of anti-BJP political parties stepping up the pressure in a bid to make the Centre bow down to its demands and break the impasse.
Those who visited the campus include Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, senior leaders of the Communist Party of India Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy and D. Raja and Lok Satta Party founder Jayaprakash Narayan. They wanted Union Ministers Smriti Irani and B. Dattatreya to be removed from their positions, as also the Vice-Chancellor, P. Appa Rao.
Mr. Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the name of Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani be included in the First Information Report (FIR) on the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula. He wanted the arrest of Ms. Smriti Irani and others whose names figure in the FIR, including Mr. Dattatreya, MLC N. Ramchandra Rao and ABVP leader N. Susheel Kumar.
Mr. Kejriwal pointed out that they should be arrested because the sections in the FIR were non-bailable.
‘Smriti Irani playing politics’
“And because Ms. Irani is lying and is playing politics, she should apologise to the nation too,” he said, demanding a full-fletched probe in to the incident. “Call data records of the mobile numbers of all concerned should be looked into,” he added.
On their part, CPI leaders including general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, national secretary D. Raja and former MP Azeez Pasha demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi break his silence and order a probe into the developments that have rocked the UoH in the recent weeks and months.
“Mr. Modi found time to convey his condolences to Peshawar on Wednesday, but as far as UoH is concerned, he has not even had the leisure to do the same. He should take action on his colleagues who abetted the suicide,” Mr. Sudhakar Reddy said.
“IITs and Central universities are public-funded with allocations from the Government of India and have to be responsible. The rule of reservation has to be strictly followed and no discrimination of any sort, leave alone on the basis of caste and social status, be allowed. The field of education has become a battlefield of ideas of socialism, secularism and Hindutva,” Mr. Raja said, expressing his outrage.
Police have been present in full force since Thursday morning to prevent embarrassing moments and had a watchful eye over those from ABVP on campus and in the immediate vicinity of the UoH campus.
Interestingly, there is a dichotomy of sorts with students divided on how far they should enlist the support of anti-BJP political parties in their ‘struggle for justice against the social boycott’.
