Prosecution of the Union Ministers

A senior journalist and social activist who has been supportive of the agitation Mallepalli Laxmaiah, said that while the revocation of suspension was announced, it was way down in the list of students’ demands. “Action against the Union Ministers and their prosecution under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act apart, the other demands are more important,” he said. It has been five days since research scholar Rohith Vemula took the extreme step and hang himself to death in a friend’s hostel room on the campus last Sunday, and three weeks since the four other expelled students have been agitating against the alleged ‘social



boycott’. Post the suicide, the sprawling campus has been on the boil with academic and non-academic activity virtually coming to a halt. Politicians of all hues, but bound only for their anti-Bharatiya Janata Party stance, have made a beeline to express their solidarity booking a criminal case against Vice-Chancellor P. Appa Rao, employment to one member of Rohith’s family, payment of compensation of Rs. 50 lakh to the family and dropping of cases against Dalit research scholars are actions that might pave the way for the impasse to end, maintained the students on Friday, a day after the administration announced the revocation of the suspension.