The Joint Action Committee for Social Justice, University of Hyderabad has planned a huge rally “Chalo HCU — Justice for Rohith Vemula,”
Comprising students from Central Universities across the country on Jan. 25. The rally is part of JAC’s decision to intensify students’ agitation to pile pressure on the Centre to accept their five-point charter of demands, mainly removal of Prof Appa Rao from UoH vice-chancellor’s post and punish culprits booked under SC/ST Atrocities Act including Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya.
The JAC leaders said students from all Central Universities and several state universities have extended their support to ‘Chalo HCU’ and promised to take part in large numbers demanding justice for Rohith Vemula. They said students from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana and a few other states expressed their rage and solidarity to the students’ movement for social justice.
The Telangana government which had remained silent on Rohith Vemula’s suicide finally responded on Saturday. It asked the Ranga Reddy district administration to conduct an independent inquiry and submit a report to government. The district administration directed Serilingampally tehsildar (MRO), under whose jurisdiction the UoH in Gachibowli falls, to inquire into the incident. Serilingampally MRO Srinivas Reddy said he would soon begin the inquiry by visiting the university and submit the report in two to three days.
“We condemn the arrest of protesting students in Dr B.R. Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow,” at Prime Minister Modi’s meeting on January 22. Students across the country rose in protest over UoH Dalit scholar’s suicide and burnt effigies of UMHRD, BJP and RSS and resolved to fight unitedly against communalisation of academic institutions,” the JAC leaders said.