ABVP to hold nationwide seminars, debates on Rohith issue

Seeking to counter flak it drew over the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, BJP's campus outfit, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) today announced a nationwide campaign to highlight its version of the sequence of events at Hyderabad Central University. The student body said starting tomorrow seminars, meetings, open debates would be organised in colleges, universities and educational institutions across the country over the issue. Vinay Bidre, national general secretary of the student body, alleged that "There are some forces in the University, who support people like Yakub Memon. There are some faculty members (of the HCU) supporting them. We need a thorough inquiry into this issue." Bidre charged that in the wake of Rohith's suicide, some of the teaching staff of Hyderabad Central University was provoking agitating students and trying to spread anti-national sentiments on the campus. "Our prime motto is that justice has to be done to Rohith's family members. At the same time, we also need to know who provoked Rohith Vemula to take that extreme step," Bidre told reporters at a press conference. In the next one week, the ABVP will organise a national-level campaign, including seminars, meetings, open debates across all colleges, universities and educational institutions to highlight some of the issues regarding what is happening in HCU (after and before Rohit Vemula's suicide), Bidre added. He alleged the issues between some student groups have been transformed into Dalit and non-Dalit issues by some political leaders like AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who visited the campus recently. Bidre also demanded that the judicial commission ordered by the Government should clear air on different versions about Vemula's caste. He also alleged that Cyberabad Police had submitted a wrong report to the court on the issue of attack on ABVP leader Susheel Kumar last year. "There are over 100 non-boarders staying on the university campus and the administration should evict them immediately," he said.