November 22, 2024 23:39 (IST)
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Massive student protests across the country over Rohith Vemula's death
New Delhi, Jan 19 (IBNS) Massive student protests were held across the country on Tuesday over the death of 26-year-old research scholar Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide at a Hyderabad university on Sunday.
Reports said there were traffic restrictions in a busy part of national capital Delhi as students came out on the street in protest. In Mumbai, students of the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Science and IIT-Bombay have joined protests.
In Pune, students of the Film and Television Institute of India or FTII are on a day-long hunger strike against the suspension of five Dalit students of the Hyderabad University.
On Sunday, Rohith Vemula, one of the five students was found hanging in the university hostel from where he was banned two weeks ago. There have been protests in Hyderabad since then with hundreds of students shouting slogans and holding up placards.
As Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi arrived at the Hyderabad University campus on Tuesday, protesting students demanded that parties refrain from drawing political mileage. BSP's Mayawati and other politicians are expected to visit this evening.
Rohith's suicide has triggered a political storm with two central ministers, Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya, facing allegations that their pressure led to action against the student.
Rohith and the four other students were suspended and asked to stay away from the hostel for allegedly beating an activist from the BJP's student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad in August, during a protest on campus against the execution of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.
The students had earlier been cleared by the university. But four months later in December, the university reversed its decision and took action against the students.
Protesters allege that the university's decision was linked to a letter that Bandaru Dattatreya, the BJP parliamentarian from Secunderabad, wrote to Education Minister Smriti Irani alleging that the university had become a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics".
After Dattatreya's letter, four letters went to the university from Smriti Irani's Human Resource Development ministry, asking what action had been taken.
Bandaru Dattatreya has been named in a police complaint and has been accused of compelling the university to punish Rohith and his comrades. Students and activists have been protesting outside his home
Image: FB Photo of Rohit
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