UoH continues to be on the boil

• SC/ST employees organise ‘protest day’ to express solidarity with the striking students
• JAC calls for mass hunger strikes in universities across the country

Hyderabad: The ongoing agitation in University of Hyderabad (UoH) over the alleged suicide of a Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula continued on Friday with the SC/ST Employees Welfare Association of UoH organising a ‘protest day’ to express solidarity with the striking students and teachers.

The SC/ST Teachers Forum and concerned teachers also continued their relay hunger strike, which started on Thursday. The members of the forum had already written a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee, demanding the removal of university Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao Podile and seeking that in-charge VC Vipin Srivastava should step down from the post, a representative of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Social Justice said.

The JAC, under whose banner the agitation by the students is being led, said a candle light vigil would be organised on Friday, on the eve of the birthday of Rohith Vemula, who allegedly committed suicide in a hostel room on January 17. A group of students is also slated to start an indefinite fast in support of their demands from Friday.

The JAC has called for mass hunger strike in universities across the country to express solidarity with the agitation on the UoH campus. Two batches of students had earlier held indefinite fast at the protest site in the university. However, they were shifted to hospitals following concerns over their health condition.

The JAC was planning to undertake a visit to Delhi in the first week of February to meet the President to press for their demands, a JAC representative said. The JAC’s main demands include bringing in a ‘Rohith Act’ to prevent any injustice to the students of marginalised sections in the university, and forming a committee to look into the issues of alleged caste and academic biases in the varsities in the last 20 years in the country.

The letter sent to the President was signed by 93 ‘concerned teachers’ and they requested him to ask the Vice-Chancellor and the in-charge Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad to step down from their posts. The agitating students, meanwhile, held a protest at the administrative block of the university demanding that Vipin Srivastava step down.

Several members of the non-teaching staff told Srivastava, who came to the building, that they were not able to work due to closure of offices and were returning home after coming to the university every day. The non-teaching staff said they wanted to attend their regular work, and that certain demands of the protesting students, like removal of Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, were beyond the purview of the VC.