Rohith Vemula suicide: Modi must break silence, demands Selja

Demanding the sacking of the two accused ministers in connection with the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at Hyderabad Central University, Congress leader Kumari Selja on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should break his silence and tell the nation that what had happened and why it had happened.

"Our Dalit children, who are coming up after working so hard, have been tortured and called anti-national by ministers of their own government. And, as a result, one of the children committed suicide, it couldn't be called a suicide, but a murder," said Selja.

"You have created such a situation that one of the children committed suicide. If ministers of the Bharatiya Janata Party start doing such things, what will happen to the country," she sought to know.

"Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat has also sought revocation of the reservation policy. Basically, dividing the nation on the basis of caste is the BJP's ideology, as all such things fit into the BJP-RSS design," she said, adding that her party was and would be standing with the downtrodden.

She alleged that the ministers, instead of improving the situation in Hyderabad, deteriorating it even further.

Rohith Vemula and four others were suspended in December, A month later, Vemula hunged himself on the university campus.