University classes resume after suicide-linked protests

After two weeks of massive protests over the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, classes resumed at the University of Hyderabad last Monday, reports The Times of India.

Normalcy returned to the campus of the central university after protesting students allowed the administration to conduct classes and lifted the siege of the administrative block.

The Joint Action Committee, or JAC, for Social Justice, an umbrella grouping of student bodies, however, continued its peaceful protest and relay hunger strike on the campus to press its demands, including the sacking of Vice-chancellor P Appa Rao.

The JAC, which submitted its demands to interim vice-chancellor M Periasamy last Sunday, gave a 10-day ultimatum to the administration to fulfil them. The JAC also said that Vipin Srivastava should not return as interim vice-chancellor after his four-day leave. Srivatsava, who went on leave the previous Friday, is unacceptable to the JAC as he headed the committee which suspended five Dalit students, including Rohith Vemula who eventually committed suicide.
Full report on The Times of India site