YSR Congress Party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednesday demanded that the Centre initiate stern action against the University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile and also the two Union ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani whose letters allegedly prompted research scholar Rohith Vemula to commit suicide in one of the campus hostels.
Jagan visited the UoH campus on Wednesday and paid floral tributes to a portrait of Vemula. He also enquired with the student leaders about the incidents that led to the present unrest. After a discussion with some scholars who have gone on an indefinite fast demanding the revocation of the expulsion from the hostels of the four other dalit scholars, the YSRCP chief assured them full support from his Party. He also visited Vemula's family and consoled them.
Addressing the students in the campus then, Jagan expressed solidarity with the student community and strongly condemned the unwarranted interference of Union ministers in the campus affairs resulting in the death of the Ph D student. He said that a Union minister writing a letter to his cabinet colleague to look into some unpalatable incidents in the university and set things right amounted to firing a lethal weapon on a sparrow. He also demanded the revocation of suspension on the four other students immediately.
The YSRCP president also expressed surprise over the campaign that the deceased research scholar did not belong to the SCs but to the BCs. Why this fuss over the caste after his death, he asked, and expressed suspicion that some powerful people were making attempts to alter the facts to save their skins.
He also announced that his Party MPs would raise the Vemula issue in Parliament.
filed in:Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Suicides, University Of Hyderabad