Smriti Irani deliberately misleading everyone: Congress MP V Hanumantha Rao

HYDERABAD: Congress Rajya Sabha MP V Hanumantha Rao has refuted HRD minister Smriti Irani’s comparison of his letter on corruption, maladministration and deaths of seven students in three semesters to the one sent by labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya that started the chain of events leading to the death of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University. A fuming Rao told ET on Thursday: “The minister is deliberately misleading everyone on this matter. The issues addressed by me have nothing in common with Dattatreya’s letter.

Dattatreya has called the university a den of casteist, extremists, anti-social elements. I have only drawn the minister’s attention to the glaring misappropriation by the then vice-chancellor of the university and also expressed concern over deaths and attempted rape on grounds of discrimination in the university. They are not the same thing at all. She responded to Dattatreya’s letter because it upholds the RSS agenda, while mine expresses the real problems in the university.”