Hyderabad scholar death: Don’t instigate students, says Smriti Irani

Not ‘dalit vs non-dalit’ issue, says HRD minister

With a political storm brewing over the suicide of a dalit research scholar at Hyderabad University, Union human resources development minister Smriti Irani hit back at the BJP’s political rivals and accused them of attempting to “instigate” students across the country over the issue and dismissed demands for her resignation.

Flanked by three ministers, she took on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying the party wants to “shoot” on the issue, which is “expected, but unfortunate”. The minister noted that the ABVP student who was attacked in student rivalry belonged to the OBC community as was Union minister of state Bandaru Dattatreya, who had written a letter to her about the attack.

Attacking the Opposition parties for politicising the “unfortunate” incident, the BJP also “smelt” a conspiracy by the Opposition to give a caste and communal colour to incidents whenever any elections were nearing, hinting at the coming elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

While climbing down from its demand for Ms Irani’s resignation, the Congress insisted on a probe by a sitting high court judge against her and also Bandaru Dattatreya and the university authorities. The party also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “break his silence and take concrete action” in this case, and also sack Mr Dattatreya. Congress spokesman Deepender Singh Hooda said that instead of apologising, Ms Irani described the whole issue as a “dalit versus non-dalit” one, “which is shameful”. It also demanded that the suspension of the remaining four dalit scholars be withdrawn. Claiming that a “malicious attempt” was being made to project the suicide as a “dalit versus non-dalit” caste battle over which “passions” were being ignited, Ms Irani denied allegations that her ministry’s intervention through letters had led to student Rohith Vemula’s suicide.

“An effort is on to instigate students all over the country. My appeal is: please do not instigate students and communities deliberately... There has been a malicious attempt to ignite passions and present this as a caste battle, which it is not. It is not a dalit versus non-dalit confrontation as has been the efforts of some to project it that way,” the minister said.

Asked about the resignation demand made by Mr Gandhi during his visit to the university on Tuesday, the minister said: “They need to look at all these facts. Today I want to answer (his statements) only through the two reports.” Ms Irani sought to downplay the letter of Mr Dattatreya, who had sought action on the issue of a clash between two student bodies and the “anti-national activities” at the university, and her ministry’s five communications to the university as a followup, which have been blamed for the suicide. Attacking the Congress, she produced a letter by Congress MP V. Hanumantha Rao, who had written a letter in November 2014 seeking her intervention on some issues, including suicide by students of some marginalised communities in four years due to “caste discrimination”. Ms Irani added: “Why did the Congress not debate and fix the issue then Why it is debating it now ... The Congress MP says it’s not a new problem, but one that persisted for four years. If they (Congress) had fixed the problem four years ago, perhaps Rohith would have been alive today.”

Ms Irani said six letters were sent to the university by her ministry even on the complaint of Mr Hanumantha Rao. The minister said whatever her ministry had done was in accordance with the protocol of the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure. She also produced a certified copy of the suicide note of Rohith to say that it did not mention any university official, political organisation or any MP.

Ms Irani said there was one last line to the “ASA family” (Ambedkar Students Association) in that note: “Sorry for disappointing all of you... There is some bad water in us.” She said the two-member fact-finding committee sent by the HRD ministry to the university on Tuesday will return in the evening and submit its formal report. Asked if she would go to Hyderabad, Ms Irani said she would not visit the campus at this juncture as she would not like to give the impression of “interference”.