#JusticeForRohithVemula Turns Into A National Students Movement
By Countercurrents.org
29 January, 2016
Countercurrents.org
The protest against the suicide of University of Hyderabad (HoU) scholar Rohith Vemula is turning into a national students movement. Students across the nation are joining the protesting students in HoU. The HoU students are on an indefinite hunger strike.
Why don't we raze our universities to the ground, when this is the state to which Dalit students have been reduced? #JusticeForRohith
Posted by Meena Kandasamy on Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Spontaneous protests are taking place across the nation. Hunger strikes are going on several campuses.In New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar along with others, started an indefinite hunger strike from within the Parliament Street police station Wednesday.
They started the strike after being detained along with hundreds of students from various universities of Delhi who were marching to the Human Resource Development Ministry over Rohith’s suicide. The JNUSU members eventually left the police station around 10 pm. JNUSU vice-president Shehla Rashid Shora and three others also joined the indefinite hunger strike, taking the total number of people on the hunger strike to eight.
Posted by Sanghapali Aruna Lohitakshi on Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Three JNU students, including former JNUSU president V Lenin Kumar, are on their fourth day of hunger strike. The protesting students — under the banner of Joint Action Committee-Delhi — said they were picked up before they could reach MHRD. Some students also alleged lathicharge by the police.
Posted by Sanghapali Aruna Lohitakshi on Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Members of Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) and Left-backed All India Students Association (AISA) were also part of the protesters.
"We are protesting against the delay in justice to the student who had to end his life due to the harassment by the institution. Who will be held accountable for similar such suicides in varsities across country which go unreported?" Sucheta De from AISA, asked.
Protests also took place in Kokotta.
Posted by Minakshee Rode on Thursday, January 28, 2016
Students are joining the relay hunger strike going on in UoH and also have also started a hash tag campaign #RelayFastforRohit #JusticeforRohit #WeAreMoreThanFive asking fellow students to show solidarity by posting their pictures on social media
Posted by Meena Kandasamy on Thursday, January 28, 2016
Protest Rally from Byculla to Vidhan Bhavan,Mumbai on 1st February, 2016
The institutional murder of Rohith Vemula,a PhD scholar from Hyderabad Central University, the latest and most shocking in a long series of such murders, has triggered protest demonstrations and campaigns across the country for the arrest of those responsible for Rohith’s death. The Mumbai Students Solidarity Front(MSS) organised the student protest in Mumbai University on 19th Jan 2016 demanding justice for Rohith and the other four students who were thrown out of their hostel on false allegations made by the ABVP president of HCU, Susheel Kumar. After the protest a need for a broader alliance was felt. Various Ambedkarite, progressive and democratic organisations from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai came together and formed a front on 22nd January called "Justice for Rohit - Joint Action Committee, Mumbai" under the guidance of Adv. Prakash Ambedkar. Students from IIT, Bombay, Mumbai University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tata Institute of fundamental research, Nirmala Niketan college, Siddharth college, Govt Law college, Ruparel College, St. Xavier's college, International Institute of Population Sciences, Vivekananda college, Ambedkar College, and many others are part of the front. Several progressive political forces, cultural groups and local organisations have also joined in.
In order to take the movement of Justice for Rohith forward and build support for the demands raised by the JAC for Social Justice, HCU, the JAC mumbai is organising a protest rally from Byculla to Vidhan Bhavan on February 1st, Monday, 2016. JAC members are at present involved in campaigning across educational institutions and bastis in the city and suburbs to speak to people of the age-old and recent battles that Rohit was fighting and to call upon them to join the protest rally.
The Protest rally will start from Ranibagh, Byculla at 11 am. We call upon you to join this rally in memory of Rohith’s struggle and to express solidarity with students sitting in protest in HCU. These students are under tremendous pressure and threat from the ABVP and HCU administration to give up their struggle for their just demands. In these circumstances, it has become all the more necessary to build a momentum for a nation-wide movement to seek justice for Rohith.
The pamphlet and the poster for the protest rally have been attached. Please circulate this mail widely.
Justice For Rohith, Joint Action Committee, Mumbai, Maharashtra
For details, please contact :
Ajmal: 7666842809 Harshali: 9930177123 Jenny: 8433833449
Srishti: 9967154357 Sagar : 9821747649 Suvarna: 7039604408
Saqib: 9930022195 Sreejith:8879220651 Smita: 7208022255
Shraddha: 9004336140 Akash: 9773592396 Akshay: 8097892264
Ajin: 8281414955 Rossi: 9029385482 Paankhi: 8080319349 Shambhuk 9819349931