It is caste discrimination and college politics that has taken Rohith's life, is what his friends and the suicide letter left behind indicates.
"No one is responsible for my act of killing myself," read RohithVemula's suicide note after his body was founded hanging in a friend's house. But, is it really the truth behind the death of the 26-year-old doctorate student at the Hyderabad Central University?
On Sunday, after the news spread of the unfortunate incident, the protesters came out and shouted slogans. The death has been blamed on the caste discrimination that is rampant in the campus. Protestors said that he was a victim of social boycott which was the result of the politics that happened in and around the campus.
The Hyderabad Police have registered a case against the Vice Chancellor of the University, Appa Rao and Bandaru Dattatreya, a junior federal minister who asked the university to punish Rohith and other four students for assaulting the leader of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
Dettatreya dismissed the allegations saying, "Student activists from AkhilBharatiyaVidyarthiParishad (ABVP) — a right-leaning national student organisation — came to me with a representation."
"They were being beaten, assaulted in the University and there were reports of anti-social and anti-national activities. I just forwarded their representation to the ministry and don't know what happened after that," he added.
The whole issue goes back to August 2015, when the five students, including Rohith who were all members of the Ambedkar Union were accused of attacking an ABVP activist, allegedly during a protest against the execution of 1993 Bombay blasts convict YakubMemon, according to NDTV.
The inquiries were carried out and they were cleared of all the charges against them. Came December and the decision was overturned and they were found guilty. Caste discrimination was blamed to be the key role in the case and they were thrown out of the hostel and were not allowed near the common mess in the campus.
This has said to be the cause of Rohith's distress for a long time according to his friends.
HRD Minister of India, SmritiIrani was alarmed by the protests held in front of house and office. Dettatreya has sent a letter to the minister telling her to take action against the people who are making the campus a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics."
Irani refused to make an official statement on the catastrophe but has informed that an investigative unit has been sent to inquire about the case.
Sensing a perfect place to score some political mileage, several politicians like Rahul Gandhi from the Congress Party, Derek O'Brien from the Trinamool Congress, Asaduddin Owaisi from the AIMIM and several other local leaders queued up at the University to meet the students and the grieving family and to extend their condolences.
As the protests garner national support and students across the students rise up in arms will the authorities give it to the protesting students' demands or will the case gradually die down, is what remains to be seen.
Source : articlesbase.com
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