Udupi (The Hindu): B. Janardhana Poojary, former Union Minister and a veteran Congress leader, said here on Saturday that the Union government had handled the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula at University of Hyderabad in a very insensitive manner.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Poojary said that he welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on Vemula’s death, though it was belated. However, Union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani had given misleading statement on the events leading up to Mr. Vemula’s death.

Vemula’s death had brought to the fore the fact that untouchability was still prevalent in the country. Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya’s letters to Ms. Irani contained derogatory remarks against the University of Hyderabad and Ambedkar Students’ Association. He had written that the university had become a “den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics.” Should Mr. Dattatreya have used such words without understanding the situation properly? Mr. Modi should drop both these Ministers from the Cabinet, he said.

Mr. Poojary said that elected representatives of all political parties were killing Netravati River by turning a blind eye to the Yettinahole project. No elected representative, including the Chief Minister and legislators, wanted to talk about the project. “At the least, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nalin Kumar Kateel took out a ‘padayatra’ against the Yettinahole project,” he said. If the Yettinahole River was diverted, then the possibility of Dakshina Kannada becoming barren in the years to come was true. The government could provide water to the parched districts of South Karnataka from Hemavati River or by implementing the Mekedatu project. “The unfortunate part is that one former Chief Minister and a Union Minister are blindly supporting the Yettinahole project. Both of them dare not go near Yettinahole as they are unable to face public wrath,” he said.

To a query, Mr. Poojary said that none of the Ministers from the Coastal districts or MLA was effectively speaking against the Yettinahole project.