Smriti Irani puts record straight on Hyderabad Central University incident(Video)

January 20, 2016


New Delhi

Smriti Irani puts record straight on Hyderabad Central University incident(Video)

Rubbishing the propaganda by political rivals, HRD Minister Smriti Irani today accused them of attempting to “instigate” students all over the country on the issue of suicide by a student in Hyderabad University and dismissed demands for her resignation. Irani addressed a press conference flanked by three ministers where she took on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying the party wants to “shoot” on the issue which is “expected but unfortunate”.

Claiming that a “malicious attempt” was being made to project the suicide as a dalit versus non-dalit caste battle over which “passions” are being ignited, the minister rejected allegations that her ministry’s intervention through letters had led to the suicide of the student Rohith Vemula. Irani said she did not want to get into political mudslinging or a blame game and was only bringing certain facts to set the record straight in the face of attempts to create caste divisions in the society.

“An effort is on to instigate students all over the ountry. 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,” she said repeatedly.

She produced a letter of Congress MP V Hanumantha Rao, who had written a letter in November, 2014 seeking her intervention over various issues including suicide by students of marginalised communities in four years due to “alleged caste discrimination”.

“Why did the Congress not debate and fix the issue then? Why it is debating it now?, she asked adding “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,” the minister said.

Justifying the five communications in the present case, Irani said six letters were sent to the University by her ministry even on the complaint of Hanumantha Rao. She said whatever her ministry had done was done 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.

Irani said there was one last line to “ASA family” (Ambedkar Students Association)…sorry for disappointing all of you….There is some bad water in us”.

She said the two-member fact-finding committee sent by the ministry to the university yesterday will return in the evening and give its formal report.

Irani said she would not make a visit as she would not like to give an impression of “interference”.

The minister expressed confidence that justice will be done as a “fair probe” was being conducted. ”

As a government we are very clear. We have a sent fact-finding committee. The committee will submit a report whether any due process was not followed. I will comment only after I see the report,” she said.

Appealing for restraint, Irani said passions are being ignited by “wrong information, misrepresentation, misconstruing and twisting” of facts to project a wrong image.

At the press conference she was flanked by ministers Thaawar Chand Gehlot, Nirmala Sitharaman and Vijay Sampla.

Giving details of the case, Irani said it was the Executive Council of the University that approved the expulsion of five students including Rohith and an Executive Sub-Committee, which included a senior dalit faculty member, was subsequently constituted to go into the matter and it also upheld the punishment.

She also referred to the presence of a number of dalit officials including the hostel warden, who communicated the decision to keep them out of the hostel, to counter the charge of any anti-Dalit bias in the matter.

“The Executive Council was not constituted by this government. Members functioning in EC were nominated by previous UPA government,” Irani said.

However, later at a meeting of the Executive Council, a lenient view was taken as expulsion would have deprived the students of the chance to continue pursuing their doctorate and it was decided to permit them into their departments, library and academic meetings but not in hostel, administration and other public places.

The High Court had also refused to intervene in the decisions of the university when the students had challenged them. (With inputs from PTI)

Dattatreya denies influencing Hyderabad varsity decision

Hyderabad

At the centre of a row over Dalit caste research scholar Rohith Venmula’s suicide, central minister Bandaru Dattareya on Wednesday clarified that he did not put pressure on University of Hyderabad to suspend any student.

He said he only forwarded two representations he received from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) to the union ministry of human resources development.

The minister of state of labour and employment said he received a representation from the ABVP on August 10, 2015 and forwarded it to the HRD ministry with a covering letter hoping that the situation in the campus will change for better.

Dattatreya, who is a member of the Lok Sabha from Secunderabad, said he received another representation on August 29 and forwarded it to the HRD ministry.

“I have in no manner influenced any decisions made by the University of Hyderabad in this case directly or indirectly by simply forwarding these two representations to a concerned ministry. My role was only limited to forwarding these two representations. I would have happily forwarded representations of any other student body if they were to have approached me,” he said in a statement.

Dattatreya extended his heartfelt condolences to Rohith’s family.

“Since my entry into politics in the 80’s, I have always been a leader connected to the downtrodden and all sections of the society on a daily basis, whether or not in any position of power. Taking representations from common people, constituents and forwarding them to concerned ministries is what I consider my earnest responsibility by being an elected representative,” he added. (IANS)

Discussions on social media

A viral video of student Rohith Vemula’s last words before committing suicide. Rohith appears spitting venom against saffron.

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