New Delhi [India], July 11 (ANI): The Congress Party on Friday accused the BJP of rewarding the leaders who were responsible for the suicide of Dalit student Rohit Vemula in 2016. The party took strong exception to the BJP appointing Ramchander Rao as the Telangana state president, saying that Rao was one of the accused reportedly responsible for Rohit Vemula's suicide.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters today, Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Chairman of the SC Department of the party Rajendra Pal Gautam condemned the appointment of Ramchander Rao as the Telangana BJP chief. They alleged that the BJP was patronising and promoting the people and leaders who were responsible for atrocities on Dalits, tribals and minorities.

Giving details of Vemula's suicide, Gautam said that his scholarship had been stopped for seven months by the university on the complaint of the ABVP, the student wing of the BJP.

'Burdened by debt, he eventually committed suicide,' he added. He alleged that a false case was registered against Vemula by the then ABVP leader Sushil Kumar. He said the then Union Minister Bandaru Dattatraya, the then Union Education Minister Smriti Irani and then BJP MLC Ramchander Rao had pressured the university administration to penalise Rohit Vemula and his associates. With the result, he said, Vemula was expelled from the hostel and, forced by circumstances, he committed suicide.

Gautam noted that the BJP had rewarded all those responsible for Vemula's suicide. While Dattatraya was made Haryana Governor, Sushil Kumar was appointed Assistant Professor in Delhi University.

Telangana Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka said that Vemula had taken up the cause of the Dalit students, but the ABVP got a false case registered against him by pressurising the university administration, and he was forced to commit suicide.

Deputy CM Vikramarka recalled that in his suicide note, Rohith Vemula had described his death as an institutional murder. He had earlier written to the Dean and Vice-Chancellor, stating that the condition of students from weaker sections was so dire that it would be better to offer them poison or a rope for taking their lives instead of admissions.

The Deputy Chief Minister said that by appointing Ramachander Rao as the president of the BJP in Telangana, the party has once again demonstrated that those who act against Dalits and Adivasis are rewarded by it. (ANI)