Students march for Rohith Vemula, JNU

To the spirited cries of 'Jai Bhim', and demands of 'azaadi (freedom)' from various forms of discrimination on the basis of caste, class and creed, thousands of people marched in support of Hyderabad University scholar Rohith Vemula, who took away his own life after his fellowship was discontinued and he was expelled from the college for being part of the Ambedkar Students Association.

The rally, called by Prakash Ambedkar, former MP and grandson of Bhimrao Ambedkar, and the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice (JACSJ), started at Ambedkar Bhavan at Jhandewalan early in the morning and ended at Jantar Mantar. The demands of JACSJ has been primarily to enact the Rohith Act, a legislation that will ensure that students, especially from backward communities, will be protected from harassment. And bring to book the perpetrators of Vemula's death, HRD minister Smriti Irani, union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, Hyderabad University VC Appa Rao, MP Ramachandra Rao, etc.

"Students around the campuses, especially Dalit students, have been committing suicides because of the harassment they face. There have been several cases recently, and the impunity of the BJP-led government in crushing student revolutions seem to point at only one thing–that the BJP wants that only ABVP thrives in campuses," said Ambedkar, who has conducted rallies for Vemula in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad earlier for Rohith Vemula.

As the protesters reached the Jantar Mantar, several political leaders reached there in succession, who jostled for space in the midst of various student organisations like AISA, AISF, NSUI, KYSS and others. Prominent among them were students of the JNUSU, and its firebrand vice-president Shehla Rashid. Also present were Rohith's mother Radhika and brother Raja, along with Umar Khalid's family.

One of the first to reach the venue was Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who lent voice to the Rohith Act. "We need a law which doesn't let students' voices in colleges and universities be stifled," said Gandhi, adding that a law needs to check the discrimination and suppression of minority communities. "The RSS wants India to have a singular ideology, but we want an India of multiple voices and multiple ideologies."

Arvind Kejriwal, who came later, accused the government of branding anyone and everyone in the name of nationalism to ensure that people bend to their views. "Who is a nationalist according to them? Godse is a nationalist, Gandhi is an anti-national. Aamir Khan is an anti-national, Yogi Adityanath is a nationalist. Goons like these are considered to be nationalists by them," said Kejriwal, demanding that Irani be sacked along with Dattatreya. "I had said earlier, 'Modiji don't mess with students, they will take away your chair."

CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat, who has been present at the JNU protests, said that there is a huge wave of dissent against the BJP. "This wave is building up amongst students against the insensitive BJP government, which is trying to stifle all sorts of discussion and turn all campuses into RSS shakhas," she said.

Sunkanna, one of Rohith Vemula's friends, and a fellow scholar barred from the university along with him remembers Rohith as a strong man who finally gave in to years of harassment in the hands of right-wing leaders.

"They once filed a case against him in 2012 calling him an anti-national because he uploaded some poetry. He was arrested, and was released when he showed them that he had just uploaded the poetry of the poet Sri Sri," he said. Sunkanna said that he has no political affiliation. "I simply stand for freedom of speech, and for the safety of minority students in the campuses around the country," he said.