Rohith Vemula’s Mother and Others Detained While Holding Candle Light March

More than 100 students from Hyderabad Central University, Rohith Vemula’s mother and other citizen have been detained by the Delhi Police while organizing a candle light vigil at India Gate. While the report was being written, all the detained persons were holding the vigil inside the Tilak Marg Police Station. The call for the candle light vigil and a march that took place on 23rd of February was given by the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice.

Rohith was one of the five Dalit research scholars who was expelled from the hostel and faced social boycott for raising his voice against injustice perpetrated by the brahmanical forces in the country. Rohith’s death sparked off hundreds of protests across the country in which people demanded justice for him.  To carry forward the struggle for Justice for Rohith, a “CHALO DELHI” call had been declared by Joint action Committee for Social Justice, Hyderabad University for 23rd February, 2016. JAC, Delhi endorsed the call and appealed to all the concerned people to join the struggle in Delhi. The Main demands raised by the JAC are:

Enact “Rohith Act” against the caste discrimination in educational spaces.

Punish the culprits (Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya, Appa Rao, Ramchandra Rao, Alok Pandey and Susheel Kumar).

Remove Appa Rao from post of Vice Chancellor.

Employ a family member of Rohith in the university.

Pay a minimum compensation of 50 lakhs. Drop the false police cases against the five research scholars.

Appoint a special public prosecutor in the concerned case of Rohith.

Constitute a judicial inquiry (non-MHRD members) into all cases of discrimination and harassment of Dalit, Adivasi, OBC, Religious Minority students in all higher educational institutions.

Implement Affirmative action policies in all higher education institutions, irrespective of the management of the colleges. 

A solidarity march to condemn the “institutional killing” of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula on Tuesday drew support from thousands including students and faculty members of various universities, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and  Sitaram Yechury from CPI (M) . Students, activists, party leaders and faculty members took out a march from Ambedkar Bhawan to Jantar Mantar in support of the 26-year-old Vemula, who committed suicide on January 17 after being suspended from the University of Hyderabad, and demanded action against central ministers Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya and others. Five Dalit students, including Vemula, were suspended in September following a clash with a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Dattatreya, who is the MP from Secundrabad, had written to Irani, the human resource development minister, seeking action against the students, following which they were suspended.