Union Minister of Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya has been charged with abetting the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad.
A key factor for Bandaru being charged is that he wrote a letter to the central government asking them to look into the violent activities taking place in the University of Hyderabad. The letter was written after the scuffle between two student groups, Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in which Rohith, a ASA member, was accused.
A copy of the letter he wrote to the Minister of Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani, in August 2015 has been made public. Bandaru’s letter is one of six that have surfaced; the other five are from Irani’s office.
Read Bandaru’s full letter, dated August 17, 2015, below.
Below are letters by the Human Resource Development Ministry.
In one of the letters, Irani’s ministry then wrote an email and four letters to the university, attaching Mr Dattatreya’s complaint and asking what action had been taken.
“Comments on VIP reference of Bandaru Dattatreya, MoS for Labour and Employment.”
Irani has denied that her ministry pressurised the university. The ministry said it is required by rules to acknowledge and forward letters by lawmakers within a time-frame.
Unfortunately, Rohith committed suicide two weeks after he and four other students were suspended and banned from the hostel, the cafeteria and other common areas on campus.
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