Mother and a friend of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit research scholar of University of Hyderabad who had committed suicide last month, challenged HRD Minister Smriti Irani’s statement in the Parliament on Friday, calling it a bunch of lies. They accused the Minister of misguiding the House and put forth their points before the media. Here are the highlights:
Rohith’s friend: Three of us were expelled from the University along with Rohith Vemula. This press conference has been called to expose the lies being propagated by Smriti Irani in parliament.
Irani: No police and doctors were allowed inside the university campus to revive Rohith Vemula on the day he died.
Rohith’s friend: This has malicious intent to divert the entire issue which has started troubling BJP. It was discovered by university officials at 7 pm that Rohith was dead. This was confirmed by the doctor who came out in open statement yesterday. She stated that Rohith was dead by that time itself.
Videos on Facebook show police was present in the room where Rohith died and his body was aside there.
Irani: In the inquiry process of the proctorial board, there was a Scheduled Caste representative
Rohith’s friend: This is not true, the decision was taken in Executive Council which does not have any single Dalit representative. Among the 11 members, there were no SC/ST members. Page no 4, decision no 5 – it is clearly reported that in response to the HRD ministry.
Irani: It was decided that students will not be allowed to stay in hostel and not permitted to participate in students elections.
Rohith’s friend: Absolute lie being spread by Smriti Irani. Police Commissioner clearly stated that there was no violence.
Irani: Rohith was not a Dalit.
Rohith’s friend: She and Gehlot were referring to reports of ACP. He is not competent to investigate caste of a person. Mother of Rohith is Scheduled Caste, grandmother of Rohith who adopted his mother is Scheduled Caste. Caste certificate states Rohith is a Scheduled Caste.
These lies by Smriti Irani are only to divert the issue as there is clear involvement of BJP and her officials. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu was present in parliament also. He wrote directly to VC Apparao to look into the matter that has been referred by minister Bandaru Dattatreya personally.
Apparao without conducting any inquiry executed a sub-committee without making it known to us. He was head of the committee which had no SC/ST member. From Jan 4 to Jan 17, we had to stay out, there was no deliberation with students who were sleeping outside. In letter to Vice Chancellor, Rohith served notice that he was going to commit suicide. Despite that, this letter was never brought out by Smriti Irani.
Why is she hiding this letter. Yesterday she was said to have quoted statements of Rohith on Facebook. He also raised many questions against RSS. Why is she afraid to talk about Rohith’s statements against ABVP and RSS in parliament? We would like to put all this in front of Smriti Irani.
When we found no response from Rohith’s room, we immediately informed security officials. It was opened by the ventilator window.
They informed the duty chief medical officer. He may have hung himself at 1pm or 2pm in the afternoon. Whatever Smriti Irani said is all false. This is not the first time she is telling lies. She said Dalit member was part of Committee. He was a member as Dean, Students Welfare. But she portrayed it as a Dalit vs Dalit issue. By using cinematic and dramatic expressions, you cannot transform false into truth.
