NAPM in a release said that Vemula’s suicide had once again brought to fore the stark reality of the caste discrimination, which continue to flourish in our society, the institutes of higher learning, government offices, media and many other public institutions. NAPM called it a systemic murder.
“That there is a close nexus between MHRD and Hindu fundamentalist groups like ABVP is clear in the letters which the Minister wrote to VC. She cannot shrug off responsibility. Propriety demands that she steps down until an impartial enquiry is carried out,” NAPM demanded.NAPM deplored that there have been many such incidents inHyderabad University in past as well. In 2002, 10 students were rusticated from the same college and later it was found that all the students belonged to Scheduled Caste and it was done by the present serving VC of Hyderabad University.The incidents of suicide by SC/ST students have often emerged from the prestigious institutions like IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and so on. It is often blamed on the lack of merit and their inability to cope with the higher requirements of merit, often blaming the existing system of reservations for the backward and SC/ST communities. “Our collective failure to punish the perpetrators of this violence only encourages others to continue to follow the same,” NAPM said.
NAPM alleged that the NDA Government has shown the nation that education will not become a fundamental right but can become a service for trade following WTO – GATTs.
NAPM demanded justice for Rohith Vemula, his friends who were expelled and many others who continue to face the scourge of institutional discrimination across the country on a daily basis.
Web: http://www.merinews.com/article/govts-claim-that-rohith-vemulas-death-has-nothing-to-do-with-caste-is-false-napm/15912938.shtml