Hyderabad: HRD minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday used a letter written by Congress MP V. Hanumanth Rao in November 2014 to the ministry in an attempt to deflect criticism from the Opposition parties following the suicide of HCU student Rohith Vemula.
Ms Irani said Mr Rao on November 17, 2014, had mentioned that seven students from the marginalised sections had committed suicide in three semesters in the university. The minister said Mr Rao also wrote about land-grabbing and embezzlement of funds at the university. He was referring to incidents that took place during the Congress regime.
The BJP now says that if the Congress governments had acted in time, the conditions would not have risen for Rohith to end his life.
Mr Rao had written: “Seven students have ended their life over three semesters. There was also a rape and kidnap attempt in the university... the university ranking has fallen from No. 1 to No. 10 and NAAC rating has dropped by five per cent... there are allegations of transfer of university land of Rs 200 crore to a private state government employees housing society... the then VC spent Rs 1.75 lakh on a mobile phone and spent '5 crore for renovation of his bungalow... spent Rs 1.75 crore to lay a road…”
Mr Rao stated that the then V-C was “intelligently avoiding MPs by conducting meetings when Parliament is in session.”
Huge differences in both parties’ letters
Union HRD minister Smriti Irani said her ministry had followed the same procedure for the letters written by minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Congress MP V. Hanumantha Rao, but there are huge differences between both the letters.
Mr Rao’s letter is about corruption and irregularities and does not mention divisive issues. In contrast, Mr Dattatreya’s letter, in favour of the BJP-allied ABVP, says the university “has become a den of casteist, anti-national and extremist politics.”
Mr Rao said, “If the minister had responded to my letter immediately, Rohith would not have had to commit suicide. Though I wrote almost a year ago there has been no response till now.”
