HYDERABAD, Jan 19:
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today targeted Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya over the suicide by a Dalit scholar saying the Ministers and the Vice Chancellor have “not acted fairly” that forced him to take the extreme step.
He flew in here from Delhi in the morning and drove straight from the airport to the University campus where he addressed the agitating students.
Gandhi alleged that the institution instead of operating fairly has used its power to “crush” the freedom of students to express.
“The Vice Chancellor and the Minister in Delhi have have not acted fairly. What is the result. The result is that the youth, who came here to improve the country, to learn and to express himself was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself.
“Certainly he has committed suicide but conditions for his suicide were created by the Vice Chancellor, the minister and the institution,” he told the students, one of whom said before his speech that they did not want any politicising of the issue.
He demanded “strictest punishment” for Vice-Chancellor and the minister holding them “responsible” for the death of the research scholar. Gandhi, however, did not name Irani who had over the weekend attacked him in Amethi accusing him of failure in addressing issues of youth in his constituency.
After meeting the students, Gandhi upped the ante against Irani and Dattatreya and the Vice Chancellor, by observing in a tweet: The VC and Union Ministers in Delhi have not acted fairly. This youngster was put in so much pain that he had no option but to kill himself.” The dalit student Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on Sunday night, was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader. They were also kept out of the hostel. (PTI)
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