HCU scholar suicide: Students call nationwide stir January 27

The agitation at Hyderabad Central University over the suicide of dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula further escalated on Monday with students rejecting the appointment of Vipin Srivastava as interim vice-chancellor and calling for a nationwide university strike on January 27.

On a day when students from different universities converged on the campus here to pledge support to the stir, the joint action committee (JAC) also said a bandh will be called in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh if their demands are not met. The students are demanding ouster of vice-chancellor P. Appa Rao, who has proceeded on leave, and enactment of a legislation called “Rohith Act” aimed at preventing suicide of ST, SC, BC and minority students in universities.

“We are discussing with JACs of other universities to form a nationwide JAC to take forward the agitation until justice is delivered to Rohit. The JAC also calls for a strike in Universities across the country on January 27,” a spokesperson of JAC for Social Justice (HCU) said. On his part, Mr Srivastava appealed to the students to withdraw their hungerstrike, saying the deadlock could be resolved only through dialogue and that the administration should be allowed to function.

“We have been telling them for the last three days not to go on hungerstrike. The main problem at this time is, today is 25th of January, students’ scholarships, fellowships... There is a procedure to be followed. Somebody has to sign the cheques,” Mr Srivastava said here.

The students and SC/ST faculty and officers forums had objected to the choice of Mr Srivastava to perform the duties of the V-C alleging that he headed the executive council sub-committee “which has been responsible for the death of Rohith” and was one of the “accused” in the suicide of another dalit student Senthil Kumar in 2008.

However, Mr Srivastava said the reasons behind the student taking his own life in 2008 were not clear. “He was going through pre-Ph.D. course work and for reasons which are still not clear, he committed suicide,” he added. Mr Srivastava said he met some faculty members last night, and has sent an email to his colleagues “if they can come down to my residence and we can talk”. “Only through talks we can arrive at a solution. I reiterate the administration should be allowed to function and laboratories should be opened so that the students do not experience any irreparable damage,” he added.