Paswan, a member of the BJP's national executive who once headed its SC cell, said "the least" the government can do is sack the Univerity of Hyderabad Vice Chancellor and institute a CBI probe into the matter.
Alleging that Rohith Vemula was subjected to "grave crime and grave insensitivity", Paswan attacked Dattatreya for calling him "anti-national" in his letter to the HRD Ministry and added that Irani too was responsible for "mishandling" the affair.
Coming from a dalit leader of the party, these comments will embarrass the BJP at a time when has been accused of being "anti-dalit" by the opposition.
"Grave crime has been committed. It's grave insensitivity. State government is responsible and so is the university administration. Bandaru ji is also responsible. He called him anti-national. Irani ji is also responsible as she mishandled the issue," he said.
"The Prime Minister himself is a very sensitive person. He should make a statement. The matter has become so serious that there should be a CBI inquiry," he said.
Paswan was a minister of state in the National Democratic Alliance government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later headed the BJP's Scheduled Caste cell.
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