Irani Never Acted On My Letter About UoH: VHR

Lashing out at Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani for ignoring his letter addressed to her demanding a probe into corruption in the University Of Hyderabad, Rajya Sabha Member V Hanumantha Rao said research scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide would not have occurred had the union minister immediately responded to his letter of November 17, 2014.

Speaking at the Assembly media point on Thursday, Rao said that he had addressed a letter as a University Court member to Irani on November 17, 2014, about corrupt practices in the UoH, but that the minister didn't respond.

"But the same minister responded immediately to a letter on corruption in Vishwabharathi University stating that she would not tolerate corrupt practices in central universities," he said, and asked her to explain why she didn't respond to his letter.

He also said that it was not correct on the part of the union minister to write reminders to central universities. "Is she a union minister or a letter writer?" he asked.

VHR said that he had addressed another letter, too, to the union minister seeking action against the transfer of land worth Rs 200 crores to the State Government Employees Housing Society illegally by the then Vice-Chancellor in spite of the Executive Council's rejection.

He said that he had also mentioned in his letter that seven students had ended their lives over three semesters.

"There was also a rape and kidnap attempt incident in the university. The Vice-Chancellor spent Rs 5 crores for the renovation of his bungalow and Rs 1.75 crores to lay roads and fix the fencing in a place despite the High Court passing a status quo order," he added.

Instead of mentioning all these issues during her press conference, Irani only spoke of the "seven students ended their lives" part, he said, and alleged that she read that part to protect herself from her mistake and to protect her colleague Bandaru Dattatreya who had addressed a letter to her dubbing the Ambedkar Student Association students as anti-nationals, terrorists and extremists.

VHR said that it was not proper on Irani's part to show his letter to counter the Opposition parties instead of initiating action against those responsible for the death of Rohith.