Dalit scholar suicide: Protests spread across country, VC refuses to resign

Protests over the alleged suicide by a Dalit research scholar escalated in Hyderabad and Delhi on Tuesday and also spread to other cities including Pune, Chennai and Gandhinagar with the incident being described as an "institutional murder".

The activists of TJYF (Telengana Jagruti Youth Front), a cultural outfit headed by TRS MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha, raised slogans outside the house of Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya at Ram Nagar in Hyderabad and blamed him for the death of PhD scholar Rohit Vemula from Hyderabad Central University, who was found hanging in his hostel room on Sunday, Holding placards, the protestors demanded that the minister, who has been booked in the case, should resign immediately.

"Thirty seven of the protesters were taken into preventive custody when they held a dharna near the Union Minister's house," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Zone) V B Kamalasan Reddy said. On the university campus, scores of students, who intensified their protests, demanded that Dattatreya, BJP MLC Ramchander Rao, university's Vice Chancellor P Appa Rao and two ABVP leaders, against whom cases were registered for abetting suicide of Rohit, be jailed.

Raising slogans like "We want justice", they held Dattatreya and others responsible for Rohit s death and took out a rally on the campus. Telangana BJP spokesperson Prakash Reddy faced the wrath of agitating students at the HCU when he was leaving the campus after participating in a TV debate. A group of students rushed to Reddy's car and raised slogans against Dattatreya and HRD Minister Smriti Irani and his party. A window of Reddy's car was broken during the protests.

In the national capital, youth wings of various parties including AAP and Congress took to streets demanding resignation of Irani and Dattatreya. While protesters from Congress affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) marched to HRD ministry shouting slogans against the government, those from AAP's Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar The students of prestigious Film and Television Institute of India(FTII) in Pune sat on a day-long hunger strike outside the institute's gate in "solidarity" with the protesting students in Hyderabad. "We feel that the unfortunate incident like death of Rohit Vemula is an institutional murder," said a students' body representative Yashaswi Mishra.

Protests were held by workers of Congress and Left parties in Chennai where members of the Scheduled Caste wing of TNCC led by K Selvaperunthagai tried to picket the Shastri Bhavan here, which houses a number of central government offices. About 65 Congress workers were detained, police said. In Gujarat, around 50 dalit students of Central University of Gujarat (CUG) held a peaceful protest in Gandhinagar while in Punjab, the activists of Punjab Ambedkar Sena Moolnivasi took out a protest march in Phagwara and burnt effigy of Irani and demanded sacking of Dattatreya over the suicide. 

 Hyderabad Central University(HCU) Vice Chancellor Appa Rao ruled out his resignation on the demand made by "aggrieved" students. Rao also sought to distance the HRD Ministry and the two ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya from the decisions taken by the University which allegedly forced the student Rohit Vemula to take the extreme step. "I am not going to consider such kind of demand," he said when asked whether he would consider quitting the post as demanded by students who are now being backed by several political parties.

The students, Rao said, have made the demand in a situation in which they feel they are aggrieved and have asked for his resignation. "Anything has to come through a proper method and has to go through an established process. Decisions are taken in a cool atmosphere. If an appropriate committee considers the whole issue and finds if I have done anything wrong then I can consider," he said. Asked about the alleged intervention by the HRD ministry on the basis of a letter written by Dattatreya, Rao said it is a common practice for people's representatives to write routinely on common man's grievances.

"It is entirely university's decisions (relating to Rohit) and it has nothing to do with the HRD ministry," he said. HCU Chancellor C Rangarajan said the incident was "very regrettable" and that it should not have happened. He, however, pleaded ignorance about the details. "As a Chancellor, I am not apprised of all these details...I do not know the sequence of events like that because that is not the role of the Chancellor. All that I can say is that it is a very regrettable event. It should not have happened. It's an extremely sad event," he said.