Cong shedding crocodile tears over suicide of Dalit: BJP

BJP today accused Congress of shedding "crocodile tears" over suicide of a Dalit scholar and attacked its Vice President Rahul Gandhi for using students as a "political tool" after he joined them at the Hyderabad Central University for a day-long fast over the issue.

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said nine cases of Dalit student suicides had taken place in the campus during the UPA rule but Rahul never bothered to go there as he asked opposition parties to wait for the report of the judicial commission probe ordered by the Centre into the suicide.

"Congress is shedding crocodile tears simply to gain political mileage. Congress and communist parties are trying to make this a political issue and making a beeline to the university, forgetting that 9 such incidents happened during the UPA rule. This is part of their anti-Modi campaign across the country," he told reporters.

BJP said the Congress vice president's protests reflected the opposition party's "frustration" as its leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and most chief ministers were facing serious corruption charges.

"At a place where students go for study, Rahul Gandhi is trying to vitiate its atmosphere. It shows how much frustrated Congress is that it is doing politics over a student's death. Such a divisive politics is poisonous and BJP condemns it," BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

He charged that  both Rahul Gandhi and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi were doing politics over the death of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar who had ended his life on the campus.

Congress MP Hanumantha Rao had also written to the HRD Ministry over suicides by many university students coming from deprived background and the ministry had sent six reminders to the authorities in this regard but Congress had conveniently forgotten it, Sharma said.

"His protests are nothing but part of Congress conspiracy to defame the Modi government on one pretext or another. UPA was a failure while the BJP government has been successful on all fronts. Congress is unable to stomach it. Now it has made the university a political theatre for its selfish motives," he said.