Rohith Vemula’s unfortunate suicide has become a hot topic of debate in India. It has been spun into a political battle of Dalits vs Non-Dalits. Politicians like Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi spared no time to extract maximum mileage out of this event. The story is intriguing because there are far too many loopholes in the story. One such loop hole being Rohith’s caste.
Already Arvind Kejriwal was caught lying about Rohith’s admission into the university:
#AAPKaVulture Kejriwal caught lying on Rohith Vemula and was corrected by Rohit’s friend ! #BlockTheVulture pic.twitter.com/Jm0rAsD0u9
— Revolutionary Monk (@RevolutionMonk) January 21, 2016
Now, a Telugu News channel claims to have spoken to Rohith’s father and the details emerging from the interview are shocking. Rohith’s father has raised several important issues and made some very grave allegations.
Firstly he claims both he and his wife (Rohith’s mother) are from the Veddera caste and are not Mala of Madigas (SC or ST). This flies in the face of earlier reports which claimed that although Rohith’s father was a Veddera, his mother was a Dalit (SC or ST) and hence Rohith chose his mother’s caste after her separation from her husband.
Do you even know what caste Vemula belongs to? We are Vedderas. Show me in which constitution does Vadders fall into SC. We are BCs. We are not Mala or Madigas (SC or STs). At the end of the day we are all Indians. I want justice of my son’s murder. I never had any fight with my son. That is all media’s doing. I dont know where his mother’s SC certificate has come from. We are not SCs. We are BCs
Even a probe by the cops is now leading in the same direction. The police investigation has reportedly turned up proof that both parents of Vemula belonged to the stone-cutting caste of Vadera, which is an Other Backward Class and not Dalit. An official has said:
“We have found that neither of Rohith Vemula’s parents belongs to the SC/ST community, though they managed to get a certificate in Guntur stating that they belong to the scheduled Mala community. We are now investigating how they managed to get the certificate.”
Next, Rohith’s father expressed his anguish over the politicians crowding over his son’s dead body:
After my son is dead why should i come to Hyderbad? Should I come for Jagan or Rahul Gandhi. They killed my son. I want judicial enquiry.
He also claims that the family was not poor and had enough money:
We have enough money. He did not die for money. He was born and bought up in money. It was never an issue. Since I did not like the company he was keeping he used to talk to his mom and his brother more than me.
In the above statement, Rohith’s father is also seen saying that he disliked the company Rohith kept. Although he has not named anyone, is it a attack on SFI and ASA, of which Rohith was a part? This is very much in line with what Rohith said in his suicide note. It is now revealed that some portions of the note were cancelled, which indicted SFI and ASA. The paragraph read:
“ASA, SFI, anything and everything exist for their own sake. Seldom the interest of a person and these organisations match.”
Below the cancelled portion, there appears to be a sign of Rohith accepting that he cancelled the same. Did Rohith actually strike this off? Of his own volition? Was he forced? Why did he write such things in the first places? Was it done by some miscreants? Who would benefit from striking these parts out? All these matters are being investigated. The truth will only come out then.
Further, Rohith’s father said that his son was murdered for political gains and it was clearly not suicide. He had a string of abuses for some unnamed people who he blamed for his son’s “murder”:
This is being done for political gains by some b**stds. They killed my son for it. They want to instigate communal riots in this country. He was murdered. Not suicide. I want judical enquiry. They killed my son. Not police. I want justice. Not money. Not job. Don’t do politics over my son’s death.
The grieving father also revealed that Rohith’s original name until his schooling was Mallik Chakravarthy and that everyone in their village used to fondly call him as Mallayya. He father expressed his angst at Rohith’s suicide and said that his son is not such a coward to commit suicide and demanded a thorough enquiry.
