Rahul Gandhi flays Modi for not referring to Vemula in Parliament

Nagaon (Assam), Mar 4: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "failing" to mention names of Hyderabad University student Rohith Vemula and JNU Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar in his Parliament speech.

"In Parliament he (Modi) did not give a second to Rohith and Kanhaiya because the Prime Minister thinks that there is no necessity to answer the questions India is asking, that our students are asking, as he has become the PM of India.

This is wrong as the Prime Minister is not the country and the country is not the Prime Minister," Gandhi said at a party rally here in Assam.

"Rohith's mother was very hurt. The Prime Minister cannot say one word on it. He cannot say that I am sorry that Rohith Vemula committed suicide," he said.

The Gandhi scion asserted that Vemula was "forced to commit suicide due to a letter from a ministry in Delhi to his University". "One letter from a ministry in Delhi went to Hyderabad University that you have done wrong.

The country's entire weight was put on one student's shoulder and he committed suicide. It's sad", Gandhi said.

Stating that the RSS was thrusting its ideology on the students, he said, "Rohith Vemula is a symbol of what is happening now. In our colleges and universities, our youth are being terrorised. One ideology - RSS ideology - is being imposed on them."

PTI