Rohith Vemula issue: If PM Modi was sensitive, he would have dismissed a few, says Congress

NEW DELHI; Congress, which has been demanding immediate sacking of Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya in connection with the dalit scholar suicide case, today said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi "was sensitive", he would have dismissed a number of persons.

"If Mr Modi was sensitive, he should have dismissed a number of persons," Congress leader Kapil Sibal told reporters when asked whether at least Hyderabad Central University Vice Chancellor Appa Rao should have been removed in view of the suicide of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula.

Congress has been demanding immediate sacking of Irani and Dattatreya in connection with the case.

Sibal, who is a former HRD Minister, said he believed that the Prime Minister will not take action against anybody despite so many demands.

Asked about Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's remarks calling for a rethink of the reservation policy, he said the problem is that RSS is not for dalits. "It is not in their DNA to be pro-dalit," he said.

Taking a dig at Amit Shah who was re-elected as the BJP president, Sibal said that under his leadership, BJP will face one failure after another. "They have lost in Bihar and now they will lose in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and other states," he remarked.