BJP Flays Congress, TRS For Blaming Dattatreya

Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy today accused the ruling TRS and the Congress parties of targeting Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in connection with the suicide of dalit student Rohith Vemula of the University of Hyderabad.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Reddy alleged that some political parties and students' organizations were trying to defame the Union government.

He also accused the Congress and the TRS of harrassing a BC leader (Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya is one).

Neither Dattatreya nor HRD minister Smriti Irani had any connection in this case, Reddy asserted.

Reddy further alleged that some political parties were trying to politicize a campus issue even though Vemula in his suicide note had stated that nobody was responsible for his suicide.

He pointed out that the students were suspended before Dattatreya had written a letter. The suicide by Vemula was an internal matter of the university, and the BJP had no connection with it, he reiterated.

"A problem had arisen in the university after Yakub Memon was hanged. Some students posted comments in Facebook in favour of Memon. When ABVP students went there to question them, Rohith and his friends attacked them. A student by name Sushil was badly beaten, and was in hospital for many days. Without going into the facts, the case is being diverted," he said.

The BJP leader said that only when some students approached Dattatreya and complained that though they were badly beaten up no action was taken against the culprits, had the Union minister responded by writing to HRD Minister Smriti Irani. But the five Dalit students had been suspended by the HCU on August 31 itself, even before Dattatreya's letter had reached the University. While Dattatreya wrote the letter to the Centre on August 27, Irani forwarded the letter to the University on December 27, i. e. after five months. Therefore, the two Union ministers were not at all responsible for the research scholar's suicide, Reddy said.

Questioning the visit of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to the university on Tuesday to console the family of the deceased, Reddy asked the former why he did not care to visit Warangal when three family members of former Congress MP Sircilla Rajaiah committed suicide. He alleged that the Congress was trying to fish in troubled waters, and wanted to derive undue political gain from this issue.

Reddy also asked Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao about his election-eve promise of installing a dalit as Chief Minister after Telangana was formed.