The death of Rohith Vemula has become joke for this country, even after seven years of his death the mystery created around his caste is not solved. Now, after seven years, the Telangana Police have come with a closure report in which the police has given special attention to the caste of Vemula that he is not Dalit, his mother had provided him forged certificate and he was afraid about his caste identity so, he took extreme step to kill himself. This statement by Telangana Police informed the citizens of this country that apart from sub-divisional officer and Tehsildar now police also started giving caste certificates to the people.
Casteist nature of Telangana Police
The majority of the police force structure possessed upper caste mindset and when it comes to investigating the cases related to Dalit-Bahujan, the police show their true character. The report is biased towards the marginalised section of the society, and by giving such insulting statements against Vemula they want to break the spirit of the Bahujan students that if you raise your voice against the casteist regime and if you will be involved in politics then you will also suffer like Rohith Vemula.
Casteist Congress-BJP regime
When Rohith Vemula was institutionally murdered then, every political party, especially the Indian National Congress, protested against the BJP’s attitude towards Rohith Vemula. They condemned the then education minister Smriti Irani, Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya and also University of Hyderabad VC Appa Rao. Even Congress also assured that when they will voted to power, they will enact the Rohith Act in order to provide justice to SC/ST/OBC students studying in universities. The then student leader of Jawaharlal Nehru University Kanhaiya Kumar repeatedly mentioned Rohith Vemula in his speeches and also gave slogans like Rohith mange aazadi (Rohith demands freedom). But only after four months of Congress rule in Telangana the Telangana Police come with casteist report which questions the identity of Rohith Vemula and also shamelessly tried to prove him a coward who is fearful of his caste certificate and this is why he committed suicide.
After this report, the congress-sponsored media, politicians, Congress PM face Rahul Gandhi, and the so-called great student leader Kanhaiya Kumar has not said anything about the closure report given by his government, and they have not uttered a single word about Rohith Vemula.
When it comes to garnering the votes of Dalit/Bahujan the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is quick to talk about caste census, representation of SC/ST/OBCs in civil services, and even to invite Rohith Vemula’s mother to Bharat Jodo Yatra, but when Dalit/Bahujans ask for justice the same party show its true colours by judging their identity, by telling that Rohit’s certificates were fake, by questioning his very existence as Dalit.
When a Dalit tries to become a leader
The recent case of TISS Mumbai, where a Dalit student named Ramadas Prini Sivanandan was expelled from the university because he was politically active and took part in the Jantar Mantar protests and showed the documentary Ram ke Nam shows the agenda of Savarna regarding the politicisation of Dalits. In the eyes of the administration of TISS, he was more involved in politics than his academics, and his presence in the institute could have a bad impact on students so the administration expelled him. A similar thing happened with Rohith Vemula, his scholarship was stopped, he was suspended from the hostel, he could not go to the administrative building, and he and his friends felt like outcaste in the university campus. The closure report talked about the academics of Rohith Vemula, where his academics were belittled. In the cases of both students, this is clear that the Savarna psyche does not want to see the DBA (Dalit-Bahujan-Aadivasi) in politics.
The closure report possessed similar opinions in the case of Rohit that he was not much interested in studies instead he was interested in politics.
How Savarans set the binaries of Savarna student leaders
When we take the case of the student leader of JNU Kanhaiya Kumar, after the 2016 incident of JNU a segment of the media portrayed him as a hero, ironically this media was considered “liberal”, and Ravish Kumar was one of the most significant proponents of Kumar’s politics when he multiple times showed Kumar’s politics in Prime Time. The so-called liberal sections were posting pictures, videos of Kanhaiya Kumar and consistently praising his presence in student politics and his oratory skills. When he contested the election in 2019, the so-called liberal media projected him as a youth icon. They called him a “hope for youths” in India and made a “singular narrative” that progressive people like Kanhaiya should be in the politics they should reach to the parliament. This media branded him and his politics as a beacon for the students.
But in the case of Rohith Vemula and Ramdas Prini, the yardstick becomes different because they are Dalits, and Kanhaiya is Upper Caste. If an Upper caste student wants to do politics, he will be termed a progressive and youth icon, but when Dalits want to do politics, they are termed as propagandists, disturbing elements. The friends of Rohith Vemula still do not have jobs because they tried to raise questions against the well-established varna system, thus, they are termed disturbing elements who cannot have jobs and Kanhaiya who used to Vemula suicide is contesting for the Lok Sabha seat.
The OBC identity of Rohith Vemula
From Cabinet ministers to media and now police, everyone discussed the caste of Rohith Vemula, and they came to the conclusion that Rohith Vemula was not a Dalit but an OBC.
Rohith’s mother, Radhika Vemula belonged to Mala (SC) community and was adopted by a Vaddera (OBC) community. Radhika vemula married to a person from vaddedra community who allegedly left her when he got to know about the Dalit identity of Radhika. Being raised by an SC mother, Rohith Vemula has no right to adopt her mother’s caste because in this patriarchal society if even the father has no role in raising and educating you, still he owns his identity because he is your father.
What if Rohith Vemula would be an OBC from both father and mother’s side, Does the university administration have the right to stop the scholarship of an OBC student, do they have the right to oust an OBC candidate from hostels?
The question is not about the OBC/Dalit identity of Rohith, the question is about the condition of marginal students in educational institutions, multiple news are there about how Bahujan students are dying in universities. Students like Payal Tadvi, and Bhagwant Man were institutionally murdered. But the education system of this country keeps providing privileges to the upper castes, on the other hand suppressing the Bahujans. Still, there are many Rohiths dying in educational institutions because they want to raise their voices against the oppressive systems and still Savarnas are using DBA’s struggle as a ladder to becoming so-called leaders. Now this is time to stop being “Data” for them.
Ritu
National Coordinator of All India OBC Student Association
