Rohit Vemula’s suicide is the political land mine that the BJP could have avoided if it believed more in freedom and less in authoritarianism. It could have side-stepped this political hazard if it had relied on tact instead of a bludgeon. It could have got on with the job of building a new India instead of having to put out conflagrations if it had been more pragmatic and less dogmatic. Now it finds itself in the middle of a mine field of its own making and, like it or not, the buck is going to stop at the desk of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rohit Vemula’s death is tragic. The young PhD scholar took his own life and it is difficult to say if he gave up the good fight or gave up his life in order to breathe life into the movement against intolerance of views and ideas not in consonance with those of the ruling elite. He could be a coward who bailed out or the hero who made the ultimate sacrifice to draw attention to his personal plight and the systematic persecution of people who fight for their beliefs against a formidable army backed by the state. We would like to believe it was the latter because we now know that in extinguishing the spark of his life he has ignited the fire of defiance.
Rohit Vemula’s death might not have been necessary if the Centre had chosen not to interfere in a brawl in the Hyderabad Central University. For Vemula, the journey to suicide began last August when he and some of his colleagues allegedly got into a fight with members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad over the hanging of Yakub Memon. A board of inquiry gave Vemula and his colleagues a clean chit saying there is no evidence to prove charges against the five Dalit scholars. It was at this stage that Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattareya wrote to HRD Minister Smriti Irani describing the university as a den of “casteist, extremist and anti-national politics”, and demanded action. Following this letter and more protests by the ABVP the same inquiry board found the five Dalit scholars guilty and they were expelled in December. As a mark of protest the five students slept in open, but their protest did not draw national attention until Rohit committed suicide.
The Modi government is not going to come out of this one smelling like roses. Rohit’s suicide has not only turned the focus on intolerance but also on micro management of the education system by the HRD ministry. It started with withdrawal of the Delhi University four-year undergraduate programme and followed with the resignation of eminent nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar over selection of IIT directors, resignation of IIT Delhi director and a controversial decision of IIT Madras to ban the students forum. There are numerous instances where the NDA government used blunt force to bend the education system to its will. In the present case, pressure was mounted on the five Dalit students and Rohit, in particular, was denied his monthly stipend and isolated in the campus.
Rohit Vemula’s suicide is fodder for the opposition and politicians of all hues have started descending on Hyderabad to gain brownie points. The ends of justice, however, will be served only if a thorough probe is conducted so that the truth is revealed and those responsible for nudging Rohit closer to the noose are made to pay for their actions.
