Thousands Of Students March In Delhi Demanding Justice For Rohith Vemula

By Countercurrents.org

23 February, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Thousands of students marched through the streets of Delhi demanding justice for Rohith Vemula who committed suicide inside University of Hyderabad hostel room on January 17 after being targeted by the university and the right wing sangh parivar.

Thousands of students, including those from the Jawaharlal Nehru University joined the protest march organised under the banner of Joint Action Committee for Social Justice of University of Hyderabad from Ambedkar Bhawan to Jantar Mantar.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi also joined the protesting students at Jantar Mantar. Addressing the crowd, Rahul Gandhi said voices for new ideas are being suppressed in the country.

"Our universities are being encroached upon. Rohith's voice was muzzled. We need a law which doesn't let students' voices in colleges and universities be stifled," he said.

"Rohith talked about future of India, but RSS doesn't support that but only support talking about the past," Rahul said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who also joined the protest later, accused Central ministers of driving Rohith Vemula to suicide.

"This government seems to be at war with the students of this country," Kejriwal said addressing the protesters.

The main demands of the students are:

– Enact “Rohith Act” against the caste discrimination in education spaces.
– Punish the culprits (SmritiIrani, BandaruDattatrya, Appa Rao, Ramchandra Rao, Alok Pandey and Susheel Kumar).
– Remove Appa Rao from post of Vice Chancellor.
– Employ a family member of Rohith in the university.
– Pay a minimum compensation of 50 lakhs.
– Drop the false police cases against the five research scholars.
– Appoint a special public prosecutor in the concerned case of Rohith.
– Constitute a judicial inquiry (non-MHRD members) into all cases of discrimination and harassment of Dalit, Adivasi, OBC, Religious Minority students in all higher educational institutions.
– Implement Affirmative action policies in all higher education institutions, irrespective of the management of the colleges.