UOH students pledge to fight for justice
HYDERABAD: Many students of the University of Hyderabad pledged on Tuesday to fight for justice to Rohith Vemula and keep alive memories of the PHD student whose campus suicide two years ago triggered outrage.
The Justice for Rohith Vemula, a committee of students and faculty members, will observe Rohith Shahadat Day — or martyrdom day — on Wednesday and hold a convention at the university auditorium to discuss issues such as discrimination against Dalits.
Dalit activist Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of BR Ambedkar, is likely to attend the event along with several prominent scholars.
“The university authorities, the Centre and state government might have thought the Rohith episode was a closed chapter. So long as the issues for which he attained martyrdom remain, his memories will continue to haunt the university and government,” said Dontha Prashant, a leader of the Ambedkar Students Union, a Dalit union at the university.
The university took a tough stand as protests engulfed the campus immediately after Vemula’s death, but peace seems to have returned two years on. Other than groups of students protesting and shouting slogans on and off at a memorial for Vemula close to a shopping complex on campus, no large-scale event bothered the authorities.
“The university didn’t allow us to hold a meeting or pay tributes to Rohith on his first death anniversary. This time, they permitted us to meet at the auditorium,” Prashant said.
He and Vemula were among five research scholars the university suspended and expelled from their hostel in August 2015 on a complaint by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which accused them of assaulting some of its leaders. That is believed to have driven Vemula to suicide in his hostel room in January 2016.
Vemula’s death put the spotlight on student politics, campus unrest and atrocities against Dalits, making him the rallying point of protests and debates over societal prejudices against people of lower castes.