Punish BJP, ABVP leaders and University Authorities Responsible for Suicide of Dalit Research Scholar Rohit Vemula
The suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula in University of Hyderabad (UoH) is nothing short of institutional murder.
Rohit Vemula was one of the five Dalit research scholars and activists of Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) who had been suspended from the University on fabricated charges following instigation by ABVP, BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao, BJP MP and Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatraya and HRD Minister Smriti Irani. He along with other students had been agitating to demand revocation of the unjust punishment, when he committed suicide.
In August last year, the ASA had held a protest march in UoH against the ABVP’s disruption of the screening of the documentary Muzaffarnagar Baqi Hai in Delhi University. An ABVP leader had called the ASA activists ‘goons’ for the same. The ASA had demanded an apology – and the ABVP leader had apologized in presence of the campus security. But later, he claimed he had been beaten up by the ASA activists. The Proctorial enquiry had found that the medical reports as well as statements of security staff did not show any evidence of the ABVP leader having been beaten. Yet, under pressure from the BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao, the Proctorial Board recommended suspension of five Dalit students including Rohit Vemula.
Subsequently the Vice Chancellor revoked the suspension following protests and dialogue with students, and ordered a fresh enquiry. Meanwhile Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatraya wrote a letter to the HRD Minister claiming that the UoH had become a den of ‘casteist, extremist and anti-national politics’ and falsely claiming that ASA students beat up ABVP leader Sushil Kumar when the latter protested against ASA protests against Yakub Memon’s execution. The deliberate lie about Yakub Memon’s execution – which had nothing to do with the clash between ASA and ABVP – was used by the BJP to brand the ASA as ‘anti-national’.
The HRD Minister Smriti Irani then wrote no less than four letters to the UoH over period of three months, demanding a response on “anti-national activities” on the campus! In this matter, the HRD Minister followed the same pattern she had earlier done, when she wrote to the IIT Madras to seek action against the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle following a letter by an RSS person branding the APSC as anti-national.
The new Vice Chancellor was appointed soon after who bypassed the fresh enquiry, and instead relied on an Executive Council decision to suspend the five students – clearly under pressure from the HRD Ministry, Union Minister and BJP-RSS lobby. Not content with this, the EC also ordered what amounted to a social boycott of the five Dalit students – barring them from accessing the library, hostels, common places, administrative building, and from contesting students’ union elections.
It is this state of affairs that has led to the suicide of Rohit Vemula. Rohit’s suicide note speaks of his desire to be a scientist and reach for the stars, but his sense that his birth itself was a ‘fatal accident.’ When a Dalit scholar and scientist is made to feel that even in a Central University, he can be ostracized, falsely accused, punished without evidence, and subjected to a social boycott and denial of rights thanks to the ‘fatal accident’ of his birth, it is indeed a shame.
The CPI(ML) demands that all those responsible for the victimization that led to the suicide of the Dalit scholar – including the ABVP leader who made a fabricated complaint, the University authorities, the Union Labour Minister and the Union HRD Minister be punished, and the two Union Ministers who branded Dalit scholar-activists as ‘anti-nationals’ be sacked from their posts with immediate effect.
–CPI(ML) Central Committee
