Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad Teacher's Association did not turn up for deposition on Tuesday before the single-person judicial inquiry commission instituted by MHRD on the Rohith Vemula issue. The commission began its inquiry in the on Tuesday. According to one of the UHTA members, the association did appear before the commission because they had not reached consensus. The SC/ST teachers’ forum from UoH, apart from a few non-teaching, employees’ and officers’ associations from the university deposed before the commission
Dr S. Sudhakar Babu, convener of the SC/ST Teachers’ Forum said, “We informed the commission that systematic and structural discrimination exists against not just students but teaching as well as non-teaching staff in the university. We spoke about how 60-70 reserved teaching positions had not been filled, which is a form of discrimination, and how SC/ST teachers were discriminated against in other ways like non-allotment of projects. We also said that our views and findings on the Rohith Vemula issue had not been considered and about marginalised sections’ students dropping out from Masters courses due to harassment.”
The Golden Threshold building of the UoH, where the single person judicial inquiry commission will be taking depositions till February 25, was swarming with police officials. There was heavy police presence at the nearby Hyderabad Collectorate. Justice Ashok Kumar Roopanwal (Retd) was kept waiting as no student from UoH turned up to depose at the time allotted for students. UoH Students Union as well as the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice members were protesting in New Delhi and had demanded earlier that the commission should postpone its visit, but it was not accepted.
Sources said the students' depositions would be heard during a later visit of the commission. Only the state's ABVP unit turned up at the allotted time and submitted their deposition. But N. Susheel Kumar, the ABVP leader from UoH and against whom the police has registered a case on the issue, did not depose. He said, “I will be deposing on Wednesday and had requested through e-mail to allow me for the same.”
