‘Students agree to return to classrooms, but with conditions’

The acting Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad University M Periasamy on Sunday said the students who are agitating in the wake of suicide by Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula had agreed to allow the classes and administrative activities to resume normally from Monday (today). The varsity has been roiling with agitation since January 17. 

“We had a meeting with student JAC representatives. They agreed to allow regular functioning from tomorrow. This is a conditional agreement,” Periasamy said. “They wanted that some of the individuals involved in this punishment (suspension of Vemula and four others over alleged assault on an ABVP leader) should not be in the decision-making body or the administration, and all the SC/ ST faculty members who have quit the administrative duties should resume their duties. We agreed to that,” he said. 

“Taking action against some of the individuals is not in our hands, it is under HRD ministry or the Government. There are some protocols which we cannot change just like that, but we can persuade people to keep away from administration till the judicial commission (set up by the Union HRD Ministry) clears them,” Periasamy said. Periasamy took charge after the VC Vipin Srivastava proceeded on leave on Friday. Srivastava had been given charge after the Vice Chancellor Apparao Polide went on leave following the controversy over Vemula’s suicide, but the students didn’t approve of Srivastava’s appointment either. 

Periasamy also said he had directed the finance department to ensure release of salaries of the staff and stipends, fellowships of students by tomorrow evening. 

Meanwhile, keeping up the offensive on the Rohith Vemula suicide issue, Congress has lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not taking any action against Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya. Party’s senior spokesman Anand Sharma regretted that the Prime Minister did not even refer to the issue in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio programme.