It is not the first time that the University of Hyderabad, a Central Government institution, is facing uproar over a student’s suicide. If events of the past are any indication, Dalit students taking their own lives has been a regular occurrence on the campus.
According to official records, as many as nine students, seven of them Dalits, killed themselves on the university’s campus in the last decade.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday HRD Minister Smriti Irani claimed in Delhi that a “malicious attempt” was underway to project the suicide of student Rohith Vemula as a Dalit versus non-Dalit caste battle to ignite “passion.” She rejected allegations that her Ministry’s intervention through letters to Vice Chancellor Appa Rao led to Rohith’s suicide.
Before Rohith, who hanged himself on Sunday over the issue of caste discrimination, another PhD student M Venkatesh had committed suicide in 2013 for the same reason.
The other students who ended their lives were Senthil Kumar (2008), Keshava Chary (2009), R Balaraju (2009), Tejawath (2011) and P Raju (2013).
University of Hyderabad Students Union president KP Suhail said, “Such incidents highlight the larger issue of caste-based discrimination on the campus.”
Many others ascribed the deaths to social, psychological and financial factors, including the inordinate delay in releasing the fellowships to students.
However, Irani insisted that Rohith’s suicide was not an outcome of alleged discrimination against Dalits. After choosing to remain silent on the issue for three days, Irani addressed a Press conference flanked by her senior Cabinet colleagues Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Nirmala Sitharaman and Vijay Kumar Sampla.
“An effort is on to instigate students all over the country. My appeal is, please do not instigate students and communities deliberately. There has been a malicious attempt to ignite passions and falsely present this as a caste battle. It is not a Dalit versus non-Dalit confrontation, as has been the effort of some to project it that way,” Irani said.
Asked about the resignation demand made by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi during his visit to the university, Irani commented, “They (Congress) need to look at all these facts. “Today I want to answer (his accusations) only through these two reports,” she said referring to the standard protocol followed by the Government from the UPA’s time.
The HRD Minister sought to downplay the letter of Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who had sought action on the issue of a clash between two student bodies and the “anti-national activities” in the university, and her Ministry’s five communications to the university as a follow-up, which have been blamed for the suicide.
Instead, she produced a letter by Congress MP Hanumantha Rao, who had written in November, 2014 seeking her intervention over various issues, including suicides by students of marginalised communities in the last four years due to “alleged caste discrimination”.
“Why did the Congress not debate and fix the issue thenIJ Why it is debating it nowIJ The Congress MP says it’s not a new problem but one that persisted for four years. If they (Congress) had fixed the problem four years ago, perhaps Rohith would have been alive today,” the Minister said.
Justifying the five communications between the HRD Ministry and the university in the last few months, Irani said six letters were sent to the university by her Ministry even on the complaint of Hanumantha Rao. She said whatever her Ministry had done was done in accordance with the protocol of the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure.
Sitharaman too backed Irani’s claims and said that it was not “a Dalit vs non-Dalit issue”.
Meanwhile, students in Hyderabad continued to mount pressure on Dattatreya to accept moral responsibility for the suicide of the research scholar.
For the second consecutive day on Wednesday a group of agitating students tried to lay siege at the residence of Dattatreya in Ramnagar area of Hyderabad demanding his resignation.
Police said students belonging to All India Students Federation held a demonstration at the Minister’s residence as a result of which 30 students were taken into custody.
In the meantime, a temporary memorial of Rohith set up by the agitating students at the university’s campus has become the focal point of the ongoing dharna, even as numerous probes including police investigations were on in the case.
The students are demanding immediate sacking of Vice Chancellor Rao, payment of compensation to Rohith’s family as well as revocation of punishment given to four other students.