The death of Rohit Vemula, a Dalit research scholar in the University of Hyderabad, has landed Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in a thoroughly embarrassing situation.
It is nothing but natural that there are conflicting views on any issue between the student groups in any university.
And sometimes, it would lead to clashes, but they subside on their own after some time, if the University authorities deal with such situations in an amicable way.
But in case of UoH issue, it got complicated only after Dattatreya wrote a letter to his Cabinet colleague Smriti Irani.
May be Dattatreya did not anticipate such an extreme reaction from the Dalit scholar, as he is known for writing letters to the authorities and the government on any issue. But this time, it led to the suicide of Rohit.
Now, Dattanna realized that writing letters just for the heck of it will cause him troubles.
Expressing his heartfelt condolences over the death of HCU research scholar Rohith Vemula and sympathizing with his family members, Dattatraya on Wednesday clarified that he merely forwarded two representations received from ABVP students on August 10 and 29 last year to the HRD Ministry requesting to initiate appropriate steps and help improve the atmosphere in the University for good of the student community.
He made it clear that he, in any manner, did not try to influence any decision taken by the University in the case directly or indirectly by simply forwarding the two representations to the Ministry concerned.
Stating that his role was only limited to forwarding the representations customarily, Dattatraya also made it clear that he would have forwarded similar representations from any other students body had they approached him. He hoped the matter would rest with his clarification.
“Taking representations from common people, constituents and forwarding them to the ministries concerned is what I considered my earnest responsibility by being an elected people’s representative”, he clarified.
