Dalit scholar suicide: 10 SC/ST teachers at HCU resign, slam Smriti Irani

At least 10 SC/ST teachers of Hyderabad Central University (HCU) have resigned from their administrative roles protesting Union HRD minister Smriti Irani's remarks that Dalit faculty members were also part of the probe that expelled research scholar Rohith Vemula and four others. 

According to a news daily, Prakash Babu, Dean of Students Welfare and member of SC/ST Teachers and Officers Forum, said, "The minister is misleading the nation. We will not work under the administration as there has been no representation from the Dalits in the executive council since the university's inception."

It is reported that at least 20 SC/ST teachers wanted to quit their jobs, but backtracked when told that there would be no support left for the students in that case.

It was then decided that teachers will quit from administrative positions, but continue to teach. "It is only by staying in system that we can build pressure on the administration," added Babu.

The teachers alleged that baseless and misleading statements by Irani were bringing down the morale of the Dalits holding administrative positions in the university.

The sub-committee of Executive Council was headed by an upper caste professor Vipin Srivastava and there are no Dalit faculty member in the sub-committee," said a press statement by UoH SC/ST Teachers and Officers Forum.

Several effigies of Smriti Irani were burnt on campus as students shouted slogans against the Modi government and demanded immediate revocation of the expulsion of four students.