PM expresses grief over HCU scholar’s suicide

Finally breaking his silence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed his grief over the suicide of a Dalit scholar in Hyderabad Central University even as some students raised slogans interrupting his speech.

The visibly emotional Modi said, “When there is news that a youth of my country, Rohith, was compelled to commit suicide, what his family must have gone through. Mother India has lost a son. There will be reasons, there will be politics (surrounding it). But the fact remains that a mother has lost her son. I feel the pain very well".

rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Prime Minister was speaking as the chief guest at the convocation ceremony of the B R Ambedkar University here, which was marred by protest. However, slogan-shouting students were whisked away by police.

        It may be mentioned here that the suicide by Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar of Hyderabad Central University, has kicked up a major row with Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya coming under intense attack from political rivals, who have blamed them for the incident and demanded their removal from the cabinet.