The general secretary of University of Hyderabad students' union, Raju Kumar Sahu of SFI, resigned from the umbrella student body heading the suicide agitation - the Joint Action Committee (JAC) .
He, who had been in the forefront of the movement against university authorities after dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide, succumbed to the pressure of his party, by quitting Students Federation of India, saying its politics was `opportunistic'.
Though he retained the students' union post of University of Hyderabad "to protect the interests of the campus student community".
He cited much irreconcilable differences with SFI over how the agitation was being carried out on campus after Vemula's suicide, and said he was quitting because of “SFI's false principles“ and alleged that the university's SFI unit are "controlled by external forces and dance to their tunes".
Lashing out at SFI and Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Social Justice, Sahu said the ongoing movement was “putting the future of students at stake“. He said, “My loneliness and alienation are affecting my studies and also apparently driving me towards the unfortunate path undertaken by Rohith Vemula.I think coming into the open and getting distanced from the wrong way would save me from the doom ."
The JAC has been consistently demanding the removal of vice-chancellor Podile Appa Rao, whom it holds primarily responsible for the January suicide of PhD scholar Vemula, who was associated with the SFI before joining the Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA).
"A JAC (with ASA) is formed with a different sole motive. Initially I thought the fight is really for social justice, which I wholeheartedly support even today," Sahu's letter said.
"However, slowly I felt that the students' union is effectively hijacked by JAC to mount continuous attack on selected persons. Common students are misguided though daily stories which are mostly untrue...."
Sahu compared his "alienation in SFI" to that of Vemula's. "Probably, he also felt isolated and alienated in SFI and could not tolerate the opportunistic politics played by SFI for sheer political gains...."As per my understanding, the movement is massively funded by Congress, Left and opportunist forces of the country."