A section of students of Jadavpur University boycotted classes yesterday in protest against the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit research scholar of Hyderabad University.
The protesting students said they have also expressed solidarity with Deborshi Chakraborty, a research scholar and a former student of Presidency University who began a hunger strike on Friday, demanding the resignation of central ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya in connection with the suicide.
Chakraborty has been sitting in protest at a makeshift shelter outside the Jadavpur campus.
“We are supporting his protest,” a student said.
On Tuesday, a rally in Kolkata by the ultra-left United Students’ Democratic Front (USDF) protesting over Vemula’s suicide turned violent.
Widespread protests have rocked India following the death of Vemula, who committed suicide on January 17 following his suspension along with four other Dalit students over an alleged clash with a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
In Durgapur, West Bengal, Irani accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of indulging in vote bank politics over the suicide of the Dalit scholar.
“Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien had gone to Hyderabad to demand justice for the Dalit student. I want to ask him... in Nadia, a Trinamool leader had murdered three Dalits inside their home in May 2015... Why didn’t O’Brien visit their families?” Irani asked.
“Because for him, vote bank ‘tamasha’ in Hyderabad is more important than securing justice in Nadia,” she said at a public rally in Durgapur, around 165km from Kolkata.
Last week a two-member Trinamool MP delegation, led by O’Brien, its leader in the Rajya Sabha, spent a long time at the Hyderabad University campus and addressed the students demanding justice for Vemula.
Irani also slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led government on recent incidents of violence in the state.
“In Malda, a police station was burnt. Police watched the tamasha and Mamata did not say a word. Nobody said anything when the constitutional laws were being torn apart,” she said.
Irani also criticised the party on the sensational hit-and-run case in which an Indian Air Force corporal was mowed down in Kolkata. He was killed while supervising the Republic Day Parade rehearsals.