Rohith suicide: Scholars, scientists to hold rally at Bengaluru Town Hall today
Bengaluru: Scientists, faculty members and research scholars from various research institutes across Bengaluru will come together for a demonstration at Town Hall, to speak out against the suicide of Rohith Vemula on January 17, 2016 and the arrest of the JNU students who organised a peaceful rally to commemorate the hanging of Afzal Guru. The protest is scheduled to take place outside Town Hall at 5 pm on Thursday.
Faculty members and students from the Indian Institute of Science, National Law School of India University, Indian Statistical Institute, NIAS, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, ISEC, Azim Premji Institute and the Raman Research Institute will participate in the demonstration. “We are organising talks by students and scientists as well,” said Mr Deepak Johnson, a research scholar from the Indian Statistical Institute and one of the organisers of the event.
The idea is to speak out against the shrinking of democratic processes within educational institutions. “Involving law and order mechanisms from outside the institute does curb its autonomy,” said Mr Subhankar Chakraborty, a research scholar from the Indian Institute of Science. "Educational institutions are hotspots for diverse viewpoints and no voice should be subdued." The primary focus is to bring justice to those who are being detained for participating in democratic processes, explained Mr Johnson.
Circumstances have taken a definite turn for the worse in Delhi, after the JNU student body president Kanhaiya Kumar was badly beaten up by lawyers outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Ripples of the anguish this has caused are being felt across the country and 379 scientists from all over India have sent out a strongly-worded letter to Professor M. Jagadesh Kumar, Vice Chancellor, JNU.
"What is most disturbing, is that the JNU administration appears to have defended and aided these repressive actions by the police, rather than defending the students who were involved in a non-violent activity."
ABVP holds demo, KVS a symposium
Two warring student organisations, the ABVP and Karnataka Vidhyarthi Sanghatane, organised two different programmes in response to the JNU standoff and Rohith Vemula suicide incident. The ABVP held a massive protest at the Central College, demanding immediate action against all the anti-national elements of JNU.
Students shouted slogans and supported police action. But inside the Central College campus, the Karnataka Vidhyarthi Sanghatane, an umbrella organisation representing various dalit and left student organizations, held a symposium on the JNU standoff and Rohith Vemula suicide incident.
Arjun, Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle, IIT-Madras, Rakesh Shukla, FTII, Pune, Shambhavi, JNU, Delhi, Shreekanth, Ambedkar Student Association, HCU, Pradeep Ramavat, Asst. Prof. A protest was organised between 4 pm and 4.30 pm at Mysore Bank Circle and Maharani
College Circle.
