Dalit student suicide: Sack vice chancellor, demands Arvind Kejriwal

Kejriwal said he was ready to stage a sit-in at Vice Chancellor P. Appa Rao’s office to seek his ouster but was advised against it by the student community.

Vemula’s suicide has sparked major protests in the university. He was suspended and his stipend blocked after he and his friends were accused of assaulting an ABVP student leader.

Quoting medical reports and an affidavit filed by the university registrar, Kejriwal insisted that the allegation of assault on the ABVP leader was concocted.

He particularly blamed central minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya for calling Vemula and his friends “anti-national, casteist and extremist” — allegations which led the university to act against Vemula.

“It is a matter of shame that a responsible central minister, without inquiring about the facts, had concluded that the Ambedkar student group of which Vemula was a member was casteist and anti-national.”

Vemula was the son of a farm worker who joined the university on the strength of his academic merit, Kejriwal said.

“When such bright students have to commit suicide, it is a shame on the entire society.”