Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi arrived on the University of Hyderabad campus on Tuesday morning, even as students, rights activists and Telangana Congress leaders held the centre stage at the heart of the campus, protesting against the >suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula.
Met students of the Ambedkar Students Association, Hyderabad University >pic.twitter.com/YgbPAPrUVN
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) >January 19, 2016
These students were protesting against the unjust expulsion and social boycott of Dalit students on campus
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) >January 19, 2016
Mr. Gandhi also demanded that Hyderabad University VC should quit over death of Dalit student.
The protests started around 9.30 a.m. as news about >Rahul Gandhi arriving on the campus broke. Scores of activists and students from campuses including Osmania University and English and Foreign Languages University, who were apprehended at the main gate for over an hour, gained entry following immense pressure from students of UoH.
Police barricaded the campus' main gate as students, activists of city universities poured into UoH. Students also demanded that the university Vice-Chancellor come to the protest scene but university administration has not yet addressed protestors.
Congress leaders who spoke at the spot said party and its leadership would bring justice to Rohith Vemula. "The plight of Dalit students on campuses should not be ignored. Rights of Dalits should be secured," said Hanumantha Rao, Congress MP who was on campus.
Students raised slogans repeatedly calling the deceased research scholar Rohith Vemula as ‘shaheed’ and ‘veerudu’.
(With inputs from PTI)
Vemula’s five-page poignant suicide note, triggered grief and much finger-pointing online :
