On a day when students of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) agreed to go to classes from Monday, provided Vice-Chancellor Prof. P. Appa Rao did not return to his duties, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain condemned the bid “to make a non-Dalit [Rohith Vemula] a Dalit.”
The UoH students had been on a fortnight-long agitation over research scholar Vemula’s suicide.
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“Students agreed to resume academic work but the relay hunger strike will continue,” Prof. M. Periasamy, the incharge Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad told The Hindu on Sunday.
Mr. Periasamy had stressed the need to return to classes as any delay would hurt the university’s reputation and also the students, including the Dalits.
Students, however, put a condition that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. P. Appa Rao, who had gone on leave should not resume his duties.
“I told the students that the decision was not in the purview of the varsity. Students can raise all their demands with the MHRD Commission that will visit the university soon,” he said.
Prof. Periasamy said the Ministry of HRD was positive in its approach on the developments and in fact officials spoke to him to inform that the Executive Council should take decisions to restore normality and put academics back on track assuring justice to the students.
He said senior faculty members would counsel students to remove animosity among them.
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