Rohith Vemula suicide: JAC rejects appointment of Srivastava as interim VC of Hyderabad varsity

Hyderabad: The Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Social Justice, spearheading the agitation over the suicide of dalit student Rohith Vemula, today rejected the appointment of Vipin Srivastava as interim Vice-Chancellor of the Hyderabad University.

"It is to bring to your notice again that in 2007, Vipin Srivastava was main accused in the yet another institutional murder of Senthil Kumar, a dalit research scholar in the Department of Physics," the JAC said in a release today.

Facing students' protest over Vemula's suicide, V-C Appa Rao Podile proceeded on leave yesterday, saying he was "advised to be little away from campus" to break the current "impasse".

"The Vice-Chancellor will be on a leave. In the absence of the Vice-Chancellor, Vipin Srivastava, the senior most professor, shall perform the duties of the Vice-Chancellor wef 24-01-2016," the Hyderabad Central University said on its website.

The JAC claimed that faculty members are resigning from three administrative post in protest.

The JAC demanded that union HRD minister Smriti Irani be sacked from her post and a "Rohit Act" be enacted to give legislative protection to students belonging to marginalised community in the institutions of higher education.

The JAC said it will call for a bandh in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh if their demands are not met.

The students have been protesting after a dalit research scholar, Rohith Vemula, had committed suicide on the University campus.