Interim VC faces students’ wrath

Hyderabad: Fresh protests by students broke out on Wednesday in Hyderabad over the alleged "delay in justice" to the University of Hyderabad (UoH) Dalit scholar who committed suicide.

• Six students in UoH, who are on indefinite fast, are shifted to health centre
• A group of students stages demonstration in front of in-charge VC’s residence

The students remained unrelenting in their demand for resignations of Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya. Lending further support to the stir over Rohith Vemula's suicide, SC and ST teachers of the UOH announced a hunger strike from Thursday seeking resignation of Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, who has gone on leave, and interim VC Vipin Srivastava for resumption of academic and administrative work.

Several members of the Forum have already given up their administrative responsibilities. Stepping up their campaign, the university students in Hyderabad held a demonstration outside the residence of Srivastava when he was in a meeting with non-teaching staff.

They then marched outside the campus and burnt effigy of the Vice Chancellor whose ouster they have sought. Srivastava later visited the protest site to initiate a dialogue but faced the ire of the students who raised slogans against him, asking him to "go back".

Students in most universities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana boycotted classes in solidarity with agitators seeking "justice" for Rohith who was found hanging in a hostel room on January 17.

The HCU students had given a nationwide university strike call today in support for their stir. Six of the seven students of the UOH on hunger strike protesting the suicide of Rohith, meanwhile, have been shifted to the health centre.