CPI targets Prime Minister Modi over not speaking up on Dalit student death

NEW DELHI: CPI today targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "not speaking up" over the suicide of a Dalit student of Hyderabad Central University "when he can" on killings of students in Peshawar and sought removal of two Union Ministers over the incident.

"Modi has not been saying anything on this issue. He condoles those killed in Peshawar, rightly so, as the incident deserves to be condemned. But the Prime Minister of India should also speak up on what is happening in India," CPI national secretary D Raja said.

Raja, who visited the varsity campus yesterday along with party general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, demanded sacking of Union ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani whose role has become "highly questionable" after the incident.

"Now we will have to go into the reasons. The field of education has become a real battlefield of ideas, ideas of social justice, secularism and the idea of Hindutva," he said.

The Rajya Sabha MP claimed that discrimination based on caste existed in centres of excellence like universities and IITs.

"And when Dalits assert their rights in education sector, many hurdles are created in their way," he said.

The Prime Minister had on January 20 strongly condemned the terror attack at a university near Peshawar in Pakistan and expressed condolences to the families of the deceased.

Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student who committed suicide, was among five research scholars who were suspended by the Hyderabad Central University in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on an ABVP leader. They were also kept out of the hostel.

According to Hyderabad Police, Rohith was found hanging in the hostel room located on varsity campus on January 17.