A section of students along with the Dalit teachers of University of Hyderabad continued their protests on 12th day on Friday even as some of the research labs resumed their work following an agreement with the Joint Action Committee of the students, which is spearheading the agitation.
As the JAC held a candle light vigil this evening on the eve of the 27th birthday of Rohith Vemula, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi flew in on Friday evening to join the protest for second time in ten days.
Congress sources said that Rahul will spend the night on the campus along with the other protesters and observe a fast in solidarity with the students. Rohith’s mother Radhika will also be there at the camp.
University Registrar M Sudhakar said that some classes were also conducted on Friday. “All the departments, schools and centres are open and classes were conducted in some of the departments. Research labs are almost open,” he said. But the JAC made it clear that it will not allow the administrative offices of the university to function till all its demands, including the removal of the in-charge Vice Chancellor Vipin Srivastava, were accepted.
Academic activities were totally suspended in the university as a mark of protest against the suicide by a Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula who hanged himself on January 17 in protest against his suspension.
Joint Action Committee for Social Justice along with the SC/ST Teachers and Officers Forum observed “protest day” on Friday with another group of students going on an indefinite hunger strike while the teachers continued their relay hunger strike. Congress leaders said that Rahul will be in the campus till Saturday afternoon sitting on the protest to demand action against those responsible for the suicide of Rohith.
In another development 93 “concerned teachers” of the university have written a letter to the President and Visitor of the University Pranab Mukherji demanding action against the vice-chancellor P Appa Rao and acting VC Srivastava. JAC spokesperson said that the letter demanded that the Vice-Chancellor be sacked. The letter also pointed out that Vipin Srivastava was involved in another incident of suicide by a Dalit student Senthil Kumar in 2008 and he was not given a clean chit by the university.
Meanwhile a group of students from Osmania University tried to lay a siege to the camp office of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Begumpet protesting his continued silence over Rohith’s suicide. The protestors shouted slogans against KCR as well as the union minister Bandaru Dattatreya urging the people to teach both the BJP and the TRS to teach a lesson in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections.