TRS Blames Dattatreya Letter for HCU Suicide

Demanding the revoking of the expulsion from the hostels of four dalit students from the University of Hyderabad (UoH / HCU), TRS MP Kavitha today attributed the alleged suicide by Dalit student Rohith Vemula and the suspension of the four others to Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.

Kavitha expressed dismay at the expulsion of the students. "Had Dattatreya not written a letter to the Centre, the HCU incident would not have taken place," she charged.

It was the expulsion from the hostels of the five students by the University officials resulting from that letter, that had compelled Vemula to resort to the extreme step, she alleged.

She asked the Union Minister to write a letter to the Centre seeking revoking of the expulsion.

Kavitha said, "It was inhuman and illegal to expel the five scholars for their protest in a democratic way."

Kavitha said that neither the State government nor the TRS had ever interfered in the affairs of the university, and that they had supported the dalit scholars' agitation to get their expulsion revoked. However, she said, Dattatreya wrote to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani to get the students suspended though a committee that had inquired into the incidents only recommended only a warning.

"Dattatreya is solely responsible for the death of the scholar, who had undergone immense mental agony due to the university's action. We demand the revocation of the expulsion for the remaining four scholars before a more serious situation arises on the campus," she said.

The deceased Rohith Vemula and the four others were expelled from the university's hostels on the campus following clashes between the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) and the Akhila Bharatiay Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in August 2015 over the ASA's protesting the hanging of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.