Students and teachers of NLU-Bangalore condole Rohith Vemula 's death, condemn shrinking democratic space
We, the concerned students, researchers and teaching faculty, of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore express deep condolences on the sad demise of Mr. Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar in Science, Technology and Society Studies Programme at the University of Hyderabad (UoH).
Rohith was one among the five
Rohith was one among the five Dalit students who were expelled from their hostels and were not permitted to participate in the student's union elections, enter administration building and other common places in groups on account of an earlier alleged altercation with a member of another student organization in the University. However, in the process, the present administration ignored the discrepancies and inconsistencies in the findings and recommendations of the Proctorial Board. Rohith and his friends were vocal about the instances of caste-discrimination on campus, and have been fighting against the insensitive attitude of the administration, which has shown blatant disregard for social justice and human dignity.
This horrifying incident cannot be viewed in isolation. Our educational institutions are becoming increasingly exclusionary with time. This is also a reflection on the shrinking democratic spaces within our institutions, with dissenting voices being brutally suppressed and termed as 'antinational'. It is significantly an onslaught on the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Constitution of India.
The Police registered an FIR on Rohith's suicide, against few individuals, which includes the current Vice Chancellor, Prof. Appa Rao Podile. FIR was registered under IPC section 306 (Abetment of Suicide) and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Further, the students seeking end to discrimination against Dalits on campus, including Rohith, had spoken about the vindictive nature of the administration on previous occasions. We therefore demand that those who are responsible for Rohith's suicide and social boycott of the students be made answerable and an impartial investigation must be conducted to look into the issue.
We stand in solidarity with the agitating academic community of UoH. It is our responsibility to strongly condemn any such violations ofhuman rights and uphold the spirit of the Constitution. We condemn any attempt to shrink democratic spaces within educational institutions.
Signatures:
- Deepankar
- Osho Chhel
- Gaganjyot Singh
- Aditya Mehta
- Karundeep Singh
- Shreyas Satadeve
- I.R. Jayalakshmi
- Vijay Kishor Tiwari
- Neenu Suresh
- Sonali Charak
- Chirayu jain
- Simranjit Singh
- Spadika Jayaraj
- Kaushik Prasad
- Rajini Murugeshan
- Annie Jain
- Apurva Wankhede
- Rohan Gupta
- Arti Kumari
- Vani Sharma
- TVS Sasidhar
- Abhishek Kumar
- Noaman M
- Harsha N
- Mukta Joshi
- Megha Mehta
- Ayush Singh
- Divij Joshi
- Beena
- Elizabeth V.S.
- Mathavi
- Reeya Singh
- Nandini Biswas
- Pankhuri Agrawal
- Dharma Teja
- Nikita Garg
- Pradeep Ramavath J
- Jyotsna Sripada
- Paldron Tenzin Tsering
- Aditya Vardhan Sharma
- Vikas Gautam
- Sukhbeer Singh
- Siddharth Raja
- Protyush Choudhury
- Hafsa Bashir Bhat
- Neha Rajpurohit
- Akash Meena
- Aishwarya Gaur
- Prachi Singh
- Kriti
- Aakarshi Agarwal
- Pooja Singh
- Yogesh Dilhor
- Sanjana.M
- Meghana Muddurangappa
- Harjas Singh
- Aditya Patel
- Swati Mohapatra
- Saumya Maheshwari
- Padmini Baruah
- Thangminlal Haokip
- Devashish Yadav
- Satya S. Sahu
- Manmeet Singh
- Aswin Vinodan K
- Dr. Anuja. S
- Abhijit Singh
- Aneesha Johny
- Ashwajit Gautam
- Neeraj Panicker
- Noaman M
- Arvind Ghimray
- Sneha S K
- Ashwin Pantula
- Anarghya Chandar
- Shruthi Raman
- R Jagannath
- Dr.D.S.Makkalanban
- Atulaa Krishnamurthy
- Surbhi Ajitsaria
- Bilal Anwar Khan
- Nimoy Sanjay Kher
- Simi Sunny
- Anjali Shivanand
- Kunal Ambasta
- Shrikant Wad
- Shibu Sweta
- Samuel Sathyaseelan
- Aditya Mukherjee
- Sharvari Kothwade
- Sharmila R.
- Akshat Agarwal
- Sharda S
- Sharwari
- Nupur Raut
- Parth Singh
- Dhruv Jadav
- Aman Shukla