Who was Rohith Vemula, the student whose death sparked a political furore
Who was Rohith Vemula, the student whose death sparked a political furore
Eight years after his death, Rohith Vemula is in the headlines once again after the Telangana Police filed a closure report in his case. Vemula had ended his life on January 17, 2016, leaving behind a suicide note where he said he felt that his “birth was his fatal accident”.
The police, in its closure report, claimed that Vemula was not a Dalit and committed suicide because he feared his “real caste identity” would be discovered. The report also absolves the then Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor Appa Rao and BJP leaders, including the then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, Minister for Women and Chid Development Smriti Irani, MLC N Ramachander Rao and ABVP leaders.
Who was Rohith Vemula and why his death created a political uproar?
Vemula was born on January 30, 1989 and he hailed from Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district. He was a PhD scholar at University of Hyderabad where he was a part of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) on campus.
After Vemula’s death, the BJP and Congress clashed with each other. The Congress accused the BJP of “failing to initiate action” against its leaders including Union ministers. It also criticised the “anti-Dalit attitude” of the Centre.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also went on a day-long fast in Hyderabad to oppose the Centre’s alleged inaction. Meanwhile, the BJP alternated between accusing the Congress of playing politics over the death of a “courageous” student to questioning Vemula’s identity as a Dalit. The saffron party also accused Congress of “deceiving and exploiting the sentiments of the mother of Rohith Vemula for petty political gains”. It sought an apology from Rahul Gandhi over this.
Over the years, Vemula’s death has been brought up by both Congress and BJP to trade charges against each other. The BJP has maintained that the Congress was playing “low-level politics” over Venmula’s death. Meanwhile in February 2023, the Congress promised to bring in a special legislation called the “Rohith Vemula Act” to redress the discrimination faced by students from SC, ST, and OBC, if voted to power.
Closure report filed by Telangana police
The report, which police submitted in the Telangana High Court on Friday, said Vemula committed suicide in fear of his real caste being revealed as he did not belong to the Scheduled Caste category. It also alleged that the family forged the caste certificates without providing any evidence for the same.
“There is no evidence of any fact or circumstance available on the record which dragged him to commit suicide and no one is responsible for his death,” the report read.