Kanhaiya Kumar, the student who was arrested on sedition charges, is scheduled to arrive tomorrow at the Hyderabad university where Dalit student Rohith Vemula killed himself after alleging caste discrimination.
Mr Kumar, 28, will meet students who say that Mr Vemula was driven to suicide by university officials who suspended him and his friends in December, a month before the 26-year-old hanged himself in his hostel.
University officials say Mr Kumar’s meeting with students, which is likely to include a speech, has not been sanctioned. The meeting is to be held on the part of campus where students have set up a makeshift memorial for Mr Vemula. ”We don’t need any permission for a meeting on campus at our ‘veliwada’. The police should be deployed to ensure the meeting happens,” said Prashant, a close friend of Mr Vemula, to NDTV.
Adding to the tension on campus is the return to office of Appa Rao, the Vice Chancellor of the university, who had gone on leave in the midst of the furious protests that followed Mr Vemula’s suicide. Mr Rao’s office was ransacked today by students, upset that he is back at work.
Mr Vemula’s suicide note said he did not blame anyone for his death, but a month before that, a despairing letter sent by him to the Vice Chancellor said Dalit students should be given a rope to hang themselves at the campus.
Mr Vemula’s death has been blamed by his family, a section of students, and the opposition on the vice-chancellors, Union Minister Bandarau Dattatreya and Union Education Minister Smriti Irani, who have been accused of hounding Mr Vemula and his friends based on a complaint filed by student leaders affiliated to the BJP who study at the same university. The government has denied that Mr Vemula and others were persecuted as a result.
Weeks after the tragic ending to Mr Vemula’s life, the government enlisted another massive controversy involving students when Mr Kumar was arrested from Delhi’s famous Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU on charges of making anti-national remarks. Video evidence of that speech, cited by the police, turned out to be doctored.
Mr Kumar, who is on bail, has established himself since as a gripping orator whose speeches pledge a movement against what he describes as the divisive policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.