Calling the Students Federation of India (SFI) “mother of divisive politics”, Raju Kumar Sahoo, general secretary of the Students Union (SU) in the University of Hyderabad (UoH), on Wednesday censured the organisation and also the Joint Action Committee formed by various student organisations for the recent incidents that took place on the campus.
Raju, who was expelled from the SFI on Wednesday, was secretary of the organisation. “The office-bearers of the SU cannot express their voice independently, and it has been hijacked by the Students’ JAC,” charged the general secretary at a press conference. He alleged that the Congress and Left parties were supporting the Ambedkar Students Association and SFI in the UoH.
When asked if he took up these issues with the SFI, Raju said that no one from the student group had come forward to talk to him. Addressing the media, he claimed that Rohith Vemula, who had committed suicide on January 17, after becoming disillusioned with SFI. Rohith later joined the ASA, and believed in “radical” methods to achieve justice for the poor. He, however, didn’t explain what those methods were. When asked why it had taken him so long to speak up after Rohith’s suicide, he said, “I worked with the organisation but it was of no use. Also, it was the administration’s fault that they let things spiral out of control last year when the initial scuffle took place between the ASA students and Susheel Kumar.”
Interestingly, UoH students said that in a video of the March 22 violence, Raju could be seen running away from the Vice-Chancellor’s office. When questioned if indeed it was him in the video, he replied in the affirmative.
Condemned
Reacting to Raju’s statements, the UOH’s SFI unit condemned his statements for ‘maligning the organisation and movement of social justice for Rohith’. Terming his words a ‘betrayal’ of the SFI, the student group said that he had blatantly violated its organisational ethos and was hence expelled.
