The Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Social Justice, spearheading the agitation over the suicide of dalit student Rohith Vemula, on Monday rejected the appointment of Vipin Srivastava as interim Vice-Chancellor of the Hyderabad University.
They said it will call for a bandh in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh if their demands are not met.
Speaking to The News Minute, a member of the JAC, Shujaudeen said, “The MHRD and the University administration selectively appoints and promotes professors and administrators to higher positions who specialize in killing students from marginalized communities.”
"We students of HCU and JAC members will not accept the strategy played by Professor Appa Rao who has tried to escape resignation by going on indefinite leave,” he added.
"We also reject the VC-in-charge Professor Vipin Srivastava as he was the main accused of Scienc scholar Senthi Kumar's death in 2007," Arpita, another JAC member told TNM.
SC/ST teachers forum have also rejected the new acting VC with two more professors Dr.Anupama and Sowmya Dechamma resigning from their administrative posts in Hyderabad University of Monday.
Facing students' protest over Vemula's suicide, V-C Appa Rao Podile proceeded on leave on Sunday, saying he was "advised to be little away from campus" to break the current "impasse".
"The Vice-Chancellor will be on a leave. In the absence of the Vice-Chancellor, Vipin Srivastava, the senior most professor, shall perform the duties of the Vice-Chancellor wef 24-01-2016," the Hyderabad Central University said on its website.
The JAC claimed that faculty members are resigning from three administrative posts in protest.
The JAC demanded that union HRD minister Smriti Irani be sacked from her post and a "Rohit Act" be enacted to give legislative protection to students belonging to marginalised community in the institutions of higher education.
The students have been protesting after a dalit research scholar, Rohith Vemula, had committed suicide on the University campus.