Kejriwal lambasts Irani, calls her liar

Congress, which has been demanding immediate sacking of Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya in connection with the dalit scholar suicide case, today said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi “was sensitive”, he would have dismissed a number of persons. It is like the NDA is at war with the students of this country.

Labour Minister Dattatreya had written to the education department demanding action against Rohith, 26, and four other Dalit research scholars over the incident of the alleged assault. Dattatreya’s name is there; let there be action against Smriti Irani also. He strongly condemned the “caste angle” given to Rohith Vemula’s death by Smriti Irani.

The AAP leader, who met the group of students sitting on an indefinite fast, charged Irani with playing “dirty politics” on the issue of the student’s suicide. “Irani must apologize for trying indulge in casteist politics”.

In the face of persistent demands from the students and opposition parties, as well as some of the members of Parliament from the ruling party, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has made a decision to constitute a Judicial Commission to review the entire sequence of events and the circumstances leading to the hanging of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar at the Hyderabad Central University.

On the other hand, Dattatreya bombarded the HRD ministry with his letters and both union ministers, without any enquiry, concluded that Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) was anti-national, extremist and casteist, ” he said.

She also denied that her ministry pushed for the students to be punished.

“The BJP calls it anti-national but I like to tell you that there can not be more national activity than discussing about the thoughts of Ambedkar”.

Congress, he said, therefore, demands that Irani and Dattatreya as also Appa Rao should be immediately sacked.

“The sub-committee of Executive Council was headed by an upper caste professor Vipin Srivastava and there are no Dalit faculty member in the sub-committee”, said a press statement by UoH SC/ST Teachers and Officers Forum.