News

Cong, Left funded Rohith Vemula agitation, says student leader

by IBNS 12 May 2016, 10:32 pm

Hyderabad, May 13 (IBNS) A leader of the Left students' front SFI at the Hyderabad Central University, has resigned alleging that the agitation over the death of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula is funded by political parties.

According to reports, Raj Kumar Sahu said four months of protests have not helped get justice for Rohith Vemula. He alleged that, "the movement is funded by the Congress, Left and opportunistic forces."

Following the development, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu tweeted, "HCU students union secretary resigns and makes startling revelations. Left and Congress role exposed in Rohith Vemula's episode."

Rohith Vemula, a research scholar in the university,  was found hanging in his hostel room in early January this year. In a suicide note he said he did not blame anyone for his decision to kill himself. 

But what led to a nationwide furore was that a month before that, he had sent a despairing letter to the University's Vice Chancellor Appa Rao about caste discrimination and said Dalit students should be given "a rope to hang themselves".

Students at the university have been on protest since his  death, demanding the dismissal of  the VC. They have also been demanding action against Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Bandarau Dattatreya, allegedly for taking a punitive move against Vemula based on a complaint filed by leaders of the ABVP, the BJP's student wing.