Dalit scholar suicide: BJP says minister won’t resign

Paswan demands ‘impartial’ probe; MHA seeks state report

Though an FIR has been lodged against Union minister of state for labour Bandaru Dattatreya and a strong demand raised among students and the Opposition parties to sack him over the dalit scholar suicide, the Centre is unlikely to take any action against the minister. The BJP also rejected outright the Opposition’s demand for the resignation of its sole representative in Parliament from Telangana and one of its prominent OBC faces.

The BJP feels there is no link between Rohith Vemula’s suicide and Hyderabad Central University’s action against him and other students on a complaint against them.

As the issue snowballed into a major political furore and the BJP’s rivals demanded the sacking of Mr Dattatreya and HRD minister Smriti Irani, accusing them of being responsible for the death, the BJP feels any action against its leaders would only give credit to the Opposition’s charge that it was “anti-dalit”

Union consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan, chief of the Lok Janshakti Party, has, meanwhile, demanded a “high-level impartial probe” into the incident. Also, urging political parties not to politicise the scholar’s death, social justice and empowerment minister Thavarchand Gehlot said all efforts must be made to ensure that justice is given to the victim’s family.

The Union home ministry Tuesday sought a report from the Telangana government on the alleged suicide, which it hopes to get by Wednesday. The MHA is keeping a close eye on the situation and is in touch with state officials to foil any law and order disruption or violence in the state.

Vemula was among five research scholars suspended by the university in August last year, and he was also one of the accused in a case of alleged assault on a ABVP leader. They were also kept out of the hostel.

Defending Mr Dattatreya and HRD minister Smriti Irani, the BJP said the former had merely forwarded a complaint about the alleged anti-national activities of some students on campus to the HRD minister, who in turn referred it to the institution for appropriate action.

The HRD ministry also rejected allegations that it had put any pressure on the university over suspension of the dalit scholar. After it emerged that the HRD ministry sent five letters, including four reminders, to the university on the August 17, 2015 letter written by Mr Dattatreya, it said it was only following procedures.

“It would be wrong to say the ministry put any pressure on Hyderbad University. The ministry had only followed procedures as per the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure... According to the procedure, if there is a VIP reference, it has to be acknowledged in 15 days and another 15 days may be taken to reply. Since no response was coming from the university, the ministry had to send reminders,” HRD spokesman Ghanshyam Goel said.

Seeking to justify the ministry’s action, officials said even in Cabinet meetings the ministry is supposed to provide all details on pending assurances, VIP references, grievances, etc. Sources said the ministry had sent its first letter on September 3, 2015 to the university, and reminders were sent on September 24, October 6, October 20 and November 19. Officials said the university finally replied on January 7. Mr Dattatreya had written a letter to Ms Irani after a clash between two student groups on campus where an ABVP leader, N. Susheel Kumar, was attacked.

The BJP also noted the disciplinary action against Vemula and another student was taken by the university before the HRD ministry’s communication to it. Ms Irani had said on Monday the government neither intervenes in the work of the university nor does it have any administrative control over it.

Attacking the Congress for taking the political discourse to ”such a low”, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said: “It is unfortunate that Rahul Gandhi is doing politics over a suicide. The Congress has stooped to such a low level that it is doing politics over the death of a student. We reject any such demand (of resignation) outright.”

Earlier, BJP general secretary P. Muralidhar Rao alleged Vemula’s suicide was turned into a political issue by the “Congress, a section of the media and some groups with vested interests”. In a series of tweets, Mr Rao said: “Suicide of Rohith Vemula has nothing to do with Dalit issues or rights just because he was a Dalit. It is merely politicising of the issue... Disciplinary action was taken against Rohith at the advice of the court and even a lenient stand was taken by University authorities by permitting him to enter the campus except the hostel.”

The BJP leader from Telangana said the student’s suicide note was revealing. “Connecting with incidents related to his ideological adversaries is baseless and orchestrated,” he said.

Alleging that dalits and minorities are not safe under the rule of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “It’s not suicide. It’s murder. It’s murder of democracy, social justice and equality. Modiji should sack ministers and apologise to the nation.” Mr Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party said it will hold nationwide protests over this incident on January 21.