Rohith Vemula Biography
Rohith Vemula was an Indian PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad. From July 2015, the university stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of ₹25,000 (equivalent to ₹38,000 or US$470 in 2023) (excluding HRA), with friends alleging that he was targeted for raising issues on campus under the banner of Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), an Ambedkarite student organisation.
The university representative refuted the accusation and attributed the hold-up to “paperwork”. Two days after they were accused of assaulting ABVP leader N. Susheel Kumar, Rohith and four other ASA members were the subject of an investigation launched by the university on August 5.
In a letter dated August 17, Union Minister and BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya said that the “Hyderabad University… has in the recent past, become a den of casteist, extremist, and anti-national politics” and appealed for action. In September, the five were suspended following a string of indiscretions.
On December 17, the ruling was maintained. On January 17, 2016, after the suspension was confirmed, Vemula took her own life. His passing caused a great deal of anger and protests throughout India, and it was widely reported in the media as an instance of state-sponsored discrimination.
.
Background and death of Rohith Vemula
Vemula was born on 30 January 1989 in Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to Manikumar Vemula and Radhika Vemula.[2] His father is from the Vaddera caste, classified as an Other Backward Class (OBC) in India’s system of Reservations, and his mother is said to be from Mala community by birth, which is a Scheduled Caste, but was adopted by a Vaddera family
It is reported that Radhika was treated differently from the rest of her adoptive family because of her caste.[2] Rohith’s own distress in seeing his mother abused and treated as inferior was made clear to his friends. His political activities, based on his and his mother’s experiences, suggested that he identified as a Dalit, and was advocating for Dalit rights. A District Level Scrutiny Committee that looked into the caste status of the family declared that neither Rohith nor his mother were Dalits but belonged to the OBC category.
A PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, in July 2015 the university reportedly stopped paying Vemula the fellowship of ₹25,000 (equivalent to ₹38,000 or US$470 in 2023) per month after he was “raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)”, though a university official denied the allegation of non-payment of scholarship, citing the delay on “paperwork.”
At the beginning of August 2015, Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) claims that they organised a seminar or public meeting to discuss the death penalty for Yakub Memon, a convict in 1993 Bombay bombings in which 257 people were killed. But ABVP claims “Vemula and four ASA members held a funeral prayer”. ASA also condemned the ABVP protest on the screening of the documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai in Delhi University. On 3 August 2015, he and other ASA activists demonstrated at the Hyderabad campus. In response, ABVP’s university unit president, Nandanam Susheel Kumar, called them “goons” on Facebook.
Mahira sharma tv shows and movies
The next day, Kumar was taken to hospital and operated for an acute appendicitis, but stated that he was “roughed up by around 40 ASA members who barged into [his] room.”
According to The Indian Express, an anonymous ASA member stated that “When we confronted Susheel in his hostel room, he tendered a written apology in the presence of the university’s security officer. But the next day he got himself admitted in a hospital and alleged that members of ASA had manhandled him. The university ordered an inquiry while ABVP lodged a police complaint.”
According to the publication, “the ABVP wrote to BJP MP from Secunderabad and Union Minister Dattatreya, alleging that the ASA members were indulging in ‘casteist’ and ‘anti-national’ activities. Dattatreya stated that he “forwarded the letter on my official letterhead to Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. I do not know what happened after that. ABVP or BJP has nothing to do with that.” The letter was then forwarded to the university’s Vice-Chancellor professor P. Appa Rao.
In response, further action was taken against Vemula by the college on 5 August 2015, expelling him from his hostel along with the other four members of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), while “ABVP’s Kumar was let off with a warning.”In September, the five students were suspended, a decision which was upheld on 17 December 2015. Meanwhile, his family struggled to help him, and Vemula had to borrow money from a friend.
On 3 January 2016, after the suspension was confirmed, “the five moved out of their hostel rooms to a tent they set up inside the campus and began a “relay hunger protest.” On 17 January 2016, Vemula committed suicide,hanging himself with an ASA banner. In his suicide note, he blamed the “system” for his death.
According to the suicide note, he committed suicide in the room of one Umma Anna, in whose room he was staying after being expelled from the hostel by the authorities at the University of Hyderabad.Smriti Irani told the Lok Sabha that no doctor was allowed to help Vemula and that “Instead, his body was used as a political tool. No police was allowed till 6:30AM the following morning.”
However, the Chief Medical Officer of the university, M. Rajashree, denied that was the case.[8]His father, Manikumar, has alleged that his son’s death was not suicide and demanded a judicial inquiry. Dattatreya was accused of being responsible for the suicide. According to Dattatreya’s critics, his letter to the Education Minister, complaining about degraded student politics, had led to Vemula’s suspension and ultimate suicide.
Vemula’s suicide letter did not blame anyone, and Dattatreya denied these allegations. After a complaint from students of the University of Hyderabad a police case was filed under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Bandaru Dattatreya, Bharatiya Janata Party’s MP from Secunderabad and Indian government’s Minister of Labour and Employment; Ramachandra Rao (BJP MLC); and Appa Rao Podile (University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor).
