HYDERABAD: Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has asked Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to enact ‘Rohith Vemula Act’, to end caste-based discrimination in the education system.
Vemula, a research scholar of the University of Hyderabad, ended his life in January 2016, allegedly due to institutional discrimination as the varsity issued orders prohibiting him and four others from accessing public spaces on the campus.
In his letter to the chief minister, Rahul mentioned the harrowing stories of Dalit students and leaders and drew a parallel between the historical injustices faced by Dr BR Ambedkar and the deaths of modern-day students like Vemula, Payal Tadvi and Darshan Solanki.
The letter quoted Ambedkar’s painful recollections of systemic exclusion, including denial food and water during a journey and being forced to sit apart from other students in school due to his caste. Rahul wrote that these incidents reflect a continuing legacy of caste-based oppression that still pervades Indian society, particularly within the education system.
Promising futures cut short, says Rahul
“It is a shame that even today, millions of students from Dalit, Adivasi and OBC communities have to face such brutal discrimination,” Gandhi wrote, highlighting the structural and emotional toll inflicted on marginalised communities.
Denouncing the deaths of Rohith Vemula, Tadvi and Solanki as “murders” of promising futures, he noted that their loss was “simply not acceptable”. He asked the Telangana government to take definitive legislative action to ensure no child of India has to endure what these students faced.
Recently, Rahul made a similar request to the Karnataka government.