Alleging that HRD Minister Smriti Irani was unnecessarily linking him to the controversy over the suicide of a Dalit student of Hyderabad Central University, Congress MP Hanumantha Rao told The Indian Express Wednesday that in his letter to Irani, he had never said there were “anti-national elements” at HCU. Rao’s letter, in fact, had flagged suicides in the university, allegedly due to caste discrimination. In an attempt to defend her cabinet colleague Bandaru Dattatreya, Irani has said Rao, too, had written to her, raising issues pertaining to the university. Dattatreya is facing charges of abetment to suicide because of a letter to Irani in which he mentioned Ambedkar Students’ Association and their alleged assault of an ABVP leader. “The HRD minister is misrepresenting the facts. She is unnecessarily doing this. They are playing games. I had raised issues of caste discrimination, corruption and irregularities in the university. But she never replied. The HRD Ministry says it acts on complaints by VIPs in 15 days. I am waiting since November 2014. They have not informed me what action they have taken on my letter,” said Rao. [related-post] “There is a sea of difference between my letter and that of Bandaru Dattatreya. I never said there were anti-national elements or extremists in the university. All I did was highlight irregularities. Rohith would have been alive if they addressed my concerns,” Rao said. In a four-page letter, dated November 17, 2014, Rao wrote: “.During the past four years (under the present V-C), several students belonging to the marginalised communities from Telangana region have committed suicide in the university due to alleged caste discrimination. Fact-finding committees constituted by the university held V-C and the university administration responsible for the suicides.” “Seven students ended their lives in three semesters. There was also a rape and a kidnap attempt at the university,” he had said. Irani, significantly, picked on this point to say that “the Congress MP said that this problem persisted for four years. If they (Congress) had fixed the problem four years ago, perhaps Rohith’s life could have been saved.” In his letter, Rao had also claimed that he had received complaints of alleged irregularities in the recruitment of faculty members. He had demanded a CBI and CVC probe into these allegations. He had also pointed at HCU’s slide in the National Assessment and Accreditation Council rankings. Rao had also spoken about a “kiss for love” event on the campus, calling it a “shameful and obscene” incident.
