23, Feb 2016

The families of the two Dalit students, Rama Naga and Anant Prakash Narayan, say they cannot even afford to travel to Delhi to meet their children.
By: Express News Service | New Delhi | Updated: February 23, 2016 7:31 am
There is more than one reason why the Rohith Vemula march tomorrow finds an echo at JNU. Two of the six students wanted by police are Dalits, one the son of a bangle-seller with a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card from a village in Odisha.
“They come from poor socio-economic backgrounds and are trying to make something of themselves, which is why I feel so sad about what is happening. JNU has taught them to fight for their rights but never in violent ways. I feel ashamed to be a teacher of JNU today, considering what has happened,” said Aditya Mukherjee, historian and professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU.
Of the six, students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12, three days after the protest on campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which “anti-national” slogans were allegedly raised. The other five — Umar Khalid, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar, Anirban Bhattacharya and Anant Prakash Narayan — went into hiding before surfacing on campus late on Sunday night.
The families of the two Dalit students, Rama Naga and Anant Prakash Narayan, say they cannot even afford to travel to Delhi to meet their children.