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The protest over the suicide of a Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemulu at the University of Hyderabad intensified with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi again joining the agitators at the campus and observing a day-long fast on Saturday, even as the BJP targeted him for "playing politics over dead bodies". For more than 12 hours, Rahul Gandhi, who had participated in a candlelight vigil after Friday midnight and spent the night on the campus, sat with students, including the four others suspended, and Rohith Vemula's family members, as they held a day-long hunger strike for justice at the protest venue near the Shopping Complex. They also marked the birth anniversary of Vemula, who committed suicide two weeks ago. Dalit ideologue Kancha Ilaiah offered fruit juice to him in the evening to end the fast. Here are top 10 points raised by Rahul Gandhi during his fast: (PTI)
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1. Rahul Gandhi: What has happened here is exactly what was done to Gandhiji. Gandhiji was killed by the same forces which did not allow him to speak the truth he wanted to say. It is exactly the same thing that has happened to Rohith…they did not want him to speak the truth that he saw in this institution. (AP)
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2. Rahul Gandhi: You will find one day that the same people who crushed Rohith will be blocking your path to freedom and progress. My message to every single student of this country is – when you let what happened to Rohith happen, it will happen to you one day. (PTI)
3. Rahul Gandhi: Do not force your idea on these students. Give them their dignity and respect. I want to say without any animosity & with respect – Modiji, if you want India to progress,you have to unleash the power of these students. If they are feeling discriminated in their universities and their colleges, you will not be able to unleash the power of these students. (PTI) -
4. Rahul Gandhi: There is massive discrimination in universities and other institutions. BJP and the RSS must not to impose their ideas on students and Prime Minister Narendra Modi must look into the possibilities of passing a law against discrimination at universities. (PTI)
5. Rahul Gandhi: It is time for India to have a law that targets such discrimination in all universities and institutions. We owe it to him (Rohith Vemula), to the memory of Gandhiji and to every single Indian student who dreams of an India free from prejudice and injustice. (PTI) -
6. Rahul Gandhi: If you are in India where discrimination is taking place, where people are being crushed because of where they come from, who they are, what religion they belong to, you will never be able to build a modern economy. It is a fantasy. (PTI)
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7. Rahul Gandhi: The idea of 'Make in India' has to be interlinked to issues like discrimination. These are not separate ideas. (PTI)
8. Rahul Gandhi: My main opposition to Modiji and the RSS is that they are trying to crush the spirit of Indian youngsters by imposing one idea from the top. Don't force one idea on students. Please put your idea in the market place of ideas and then if students accept that idea, I am fine with it. (PTI) -
9. Rahul Gandhi: I am here today at the request of Rohith's friends and family, to stand with them in their fight for justice. A young life full of dreams and aspirations was cut short. (PTI)
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10. Rahul Gandhi (On Twitter): A young life full of dreams and aspirations was cut short. We owe it to him, to the memory of (Mahatma) Gandhiji and to every single Indian student who dreams of an India free from prejudice and injustice. (As students raised slogans against Smriti Irani and Dattatreya, Gandhi intervened and politely told them not to shout 'murdabad'. "Let us not say 'murdabad' to somebody," he said.) (PTI)
