Dalit student's death: Protests spread across the country

Protests over the alleged suicide by a Dalit research scholar from Hyderabad Central University on Tuesday spread to more cities including Pune and Gandhinagar with the incident described as an “institutional murder”.

As protests against the incident continued for the second day in Hyderabad and Delhi, the students of prestigious Film and Television Institute of India in Pune sat on a day-long hunger strike outside the institute’s gate in “solidarity” with the protesting students in Hyderabad.

Protests were held by workers of Congress and Left parties in Chennai where members of the Scheduled Caste wing of Tamil Nadu Congress led by K Selvaperunthagai tried to picket the Shastri Bhavan, which houses a number of central government offices. About 65 Congress workers were detained, police said.

 “We are in solidarity with students protesting the death of Rohit Vemula, and as many as eight students from the Film & Television Institute of India have sat on hunger strike for a day,” FTII Students’ Association president Harishankar Nachimuthu said in Pune.

Another students’ body representative Yashaswi Mishra said, “We feel that the unfortunate incidents like death of Rohit Vemula is an institutional murder. The very ideology that led to this devastating tragedy has to be fought across.

“We condemn the government’s attempts to suppress and crush voices of disagreement,” he added.

In Gujarat, around 50 Dalit students of Central University of Gujarat held a peaceful protest in Gandhinagar.

The Dalit students gathered near the entrance of the CUG on Tuesday morning to condemn the alleged stern action of HyderabadCentralUniversity, which according to them, led to the suicide of the PhD student Rohit Vemula.

Further, the protesters termed the suicide as an “institutional murder” and demanded free and fair inquiry into the matter.

According to a CUG student and human rights activist Jignesh Mewani, Dalit students including Vemula, were intentionally targeted by the university for being a ‘Dalit’ and having different ideology than of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The protesting students held banners with slogans such as “Punish the culprits behind this institutional murder”, “Fight this casteism and fascism”, “Shut down brahminical universities before we kill ourselves”.

“This situation is unacceptable in democracy. You cannot silence voices of dissent. The BJP government at the Centre must conduct a free and fair inquiry into the matter and punish the culprits,” added Mewani.

In Punjab, the activists of Punjab Ambedkar Sena Moolnivasi took out a protest march in Phagwara and burnt an effigy of minister Smriti Irani and demanded sacking of Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya over the suicide.

ALSO READ: Rohith's last words: 'From shadows to the stars' 

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'It's not suicide. It's murder'

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Rohith's suicide, demanding that he should sack the Union Minister accused in the matter and also apologise to the nation.

"Modi govt constitutionally duty bound to uplift dalits. Instead Modiji's ministers got five dalit students ostracised and suspended," he said in a tweet.

"It's not suicide. It's murder. It's murder of democracy, social justice n equality.Modi ji shd sack ministers n apologize to the nation," the Delhi chief minister said.

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Congress seeks sacking of Irani, Dattatreya

Congress demanded that HRD Minister Smriti Irani should be removed along with Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, against whom a FIR has been lodged.

Party spokesperson Kumari Selja told reporters that both Irani and Dattatreya should resign or else Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take action against the two by sacking them.

She said that the HRD Minister has "misguided" the whole country as she had written a number of letters on the issue and that Dattatreya was "against dalit students in order to promote ABVP".

"There is much more than what meets the eye. The prime minister must speak out on the matter and take action against the ministers," she said.

"The prime minister should break his silence. This is not the first time that BJP ministers have worked against the interest of the dalits. There are several others who have spoken ill of the dalits. And hence, the entire BJP, the prime minister are in the docks," Selja said.

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