Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statements regarding Rohith Vemula’s death and the movement for justice that followed, not only implicate Dalits and conscious, rational-minded people across the country as being driven by vested interests, but are also “severely degrading” Dalit movements, said Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) on Sunday.
Condemning the statements she made at Deccan College, Pune on May 4 (Saturday), ASA which has been spearheading the ‘Justice for Rohith Vemula’ movement along with several organisations said: “She (Nirmala Sitharaman) is overlooking the political interference of the BJP-led union ministers, which had resulted in an illegal social boycott of five Dalits from the Ambedkar Students Association.”
They noted that the letter written by then union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, and strongly pursued by Minister for Education Smriti Irani, affected the illegal punishment. The same was reflected in the minutes of the 167th Executive Council on November 27, 2015.
