Sunkanna refuses to receive Ph.D degree from VC Appa Rao

Showing solidarity with his friend, Rohit Vemula, the Dalit scholar in the University of Hyderabad who was driven to commit suicide in January this year, his friend V.Sunkanna chose a unique way of registering his protest against the alleged “institutional murder.”

He refused to accept his Ph.D degree from the Vice Chancellor of Central University, Hyderabad,who “does not have the moral right to grant degrees to students.”
Appa Rao is one of the prime accused in the abetment of Rohit’s suicide. Appa Rao is also named in the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act but was never touched. Even the Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao had gone on record, promising to convince PM Modi to remove him from VC post, in the Assembly but to no avail.

“Besides, students of UoH are still fighting for justice. I decided not to take the certificate from the V-C to express my dissent against an academic system which is oppressive towards the marginalised,” said Mr.Sunkanna, who joined post-doctoral course in IIT, Mumbai.

Sunkanna was one of the five Dalit scholars to be expelled from the hostel, along with Rohith Vemula in the cold month of January this year. Students who are still fighting for “Justice for Rohith Vemula” received a moral boost and the video showing a shocked Appa Rao in front of Sunkanna went viral on social media.

-UDAAN