EXPRESS NETWORK 7WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHE INDIAN EXPRESS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016

Its Dalit leadersrestive, BJP callsit conspiracy

LIZ MATHEWNEW DELHI, JANUARY 20

WITH ITS Dalit leaders speakingup and its attempt to highlightDalit student Rohith Vemula assomeone who “supported ter-rorism” finding few echoes, theBJP on Wednesday went intodamage control mode.

Sources said the growingprotests from the student com-munity and the anguish ex-pressed by Dalit leaders, includ-ing the party’s own MPs, cameup for informal discussions atthe Cabinet meeting. Partysources said it was PrimeMinister Narendra Modi whosuggested that Union ministersSmriti Irani, ThaawarchandGehlot and Nirmala Sitharamanshould address a press confer-ence clarifying the government’sstand on the matter.

At the press conference, Iranirepeatedly said the suicide oftheyoung research scholar on theHyderabad Central Universitycampus was not a “caste battle”.She claimed that the protestswere being misrepresented with“malicious intent”.

BJP had earlier said that “thecontext ofthe clash between stu-dent groups was Rohith’s standin support of terrorism, includ-ing that against the hanging ofYakub Memon”. However, Dalitleaders, including three MPs be-longing to the BJP, took strongexception to Rohith’s activitiesbeing branded as anti-national.

On Wednesday, BJP leadersat the party headquarters arguedthat the entire episode lookedlike a “conspiracy” against theBJP. Party secretary ShrikantSharma alleged that the latestcampaign against the BJP was a“conspiracy” to damage itschances in the run-up to theGreater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation elections, scheduledfor next month.

Rohith got call from cops, notice from hostelSREENIVAS JANYALAHYDERABAD, JANUARY 20

BEFORE HE committed suicideon January 17, RohithChakravarthi Vemula was summoned by the police andhad received an ultimatumfrom the warden to leave the hostel.

The 26-year-old had receiveda letter from the Sub-Inspectorof Gachibowli police station,

dated November 5, summoninghim to record his statement inconnection with the complaintlodged by ABVP leaderNandanam Susheel Kumar.

On December 18, he receivedanother letter — this time fromthe warden of the men’s hostelsJ and K.

The letter, addressed toRohith, men’s hostel J, room no45, read: “This is with referenceto the letter dated December 17received from the office of the

ChiefWarden regarding vacatingthe hostel room immediately.Therefore, you are directed toclear your mess dues of Rs 9,482and vacate the room by 4 pm ofDecember 18...Failing which nec-essary action shall be taken inthis case. Please treat this as mosturgent.’’

Replying to the letter frompolice, Rohith said: “I deny the al-legations made by SusheelKumar which are false. I humblyrequest you not to proceed

against me because I will be af-fected unduly for appearing inthe case and my career will bespoilt.

“I belong to SC communityand implicating me in a criminaloffence amounts to atrocity onan SC person.”

Rohith was scared that policewanted to detain or arrest himand, therefore, had summonedhim to the police station insteadofvisiting the university to recordhis statement.

New Delhi: Alleging that HRDMinister Smriti Irani was unnec-essarily linking him to the con-troversy over the suicide ofa Dalitstudent of Hyderabad CentralUniversity, Congress MPHanumantha Rao saidWednesday that in his letter toIrani, he had never said therewere “anti-national elements” at

HCU. Rao’s letter, in fact, hadflagged suicides in the university,allegedly due to caste discrimi-nation. In an attempt to defendher cabinet colleague BandaruDattatreya, Irani has said Rao, too,had written to her, raising issuespertaining to the university.Dattatreya is facing charges ofabetment to suicide. ENS

Had flagged suicides, Iranitwisting facts, says Cong MP

40% are ragged, less than9% speak out, says studyDEEPTIMAN TIWARYNEW DELHI, JANUARY 20

WHILE CLOSE to 40 per cent stu-dents in colleges across Indiafaced some kind of ragging, only8.6 per cent reported the inci-dents, a study funded by UGC onthe directions of Supreme Courthas found out. The study alsofound language and region to bethe basis of more than 25 percent ragging incidents, whilecaste was a factor in 8 per centcases. It also discovered that rag-ging was more rampant in pro-fessional colleges, with nearly 60per cent students being targeted.

Titled ‘Psychosocial Study ofRagging in Selected Educational

Institutions in India’, the report isbased on a survey conductedamong over 10,000 students in37 colleges across the country.

The research team was led bya committee ofscholars from theJawaharlal Nehru University. Itwas mandated by a 2009Supreme Court order to study theprevalence, causes and solutionsto ragging menace in universi-ties. The committee included asmembers Prof Mohan Rao, DrShobna Sonpar, Dr Amit Sen, ProfShekhar P Seshadri, HarshAgarwal and Divya Padalia.

Highlighting social discrimi-nation in ragging, the report said,“Caste-based discriminationwas admitted by eight per centof students.”

GOVT TERRORISM FORCED DALIT SCHOLAR TO COMMIT SUICIDE: MAYANew Delhi: Alleging that “govern-ment terrorism” forced Dalitscholar Rohith Vemula to commitsuicide, BSP chief Mayawati saidon Wednesday that “securing jus-tice for the Dalit community is be-

coming increasingly difficult”.Condemning the behaviour of“two senior ministers of theNarendra Modi government” to-wards Vemula, she said: “This be-haviour that if you are against

policies of the BJP government,then you are our enemy and youwould be tortured through gov-ernment terrorism.” The BSP hassend a five-member delegationto Hyderabad. ENS