NEW DELHI: A probe constituted after the University of Hyderabad (UoH) scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide has raised doubts over his Dalit status, and gave a clean chit to Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya and the UoH administration on the allegation of being insensitive to his plight and thereby driving him to suicide. Further, the suicide has been attributed to “personal reasons”.
The commission’s finding were hotly contested by the late scholar’s family.
The one-man commission headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Ashok K Roopanwala said it found no material to establish Vemula’s claim to being a Dalit and no proof that his mother V Radhika belonged to the Mala community. She may have made such a claim only to support the caste certificate was issued to Vemula, it said.
The report noted that Vemula's mother had been raised by a foster family and was not told the names of her biological parents and therefore their caste.
Vemula hanged himself in his hostel in January this year after agitating for several weeks against his expulsion from the university’s hostel. The suicide caused a nationwide uproar over the treatment of Dalits in academic institutions.
Vemula’s caste status was not among the terms of reference mandated to the Roopanwal Commission but it was a major element of the controversy following his suicide.
Raja Vemula, brother of the late scholar, rejected the authority of the commission to decide on the caste question. “Who is he to decide on our caste?” Raja Vemula said. “The National Commission for Scheduled Castes
(NCSC) has already given a report, based on evidence supplied by the district collector of Guntur, that we belong to the SC category, and that is final."
Dontha Prashanth, one of the five students rusticated along with Rohith Vemula, said the report was atrocious. “The report is only meant to save the Union ministers of the BJP and vice-chancellor Appa Rao,” he said.
The NCSC in a record dated June 22, stated that Rohit Chakravarthy Vemula belongs to Hindu-Mala caste.
“The report of Guntur district collector, received by the NCSC, states that as per the available documentary evidence, Rohith Chakravarthy Vemula belongs to Hindu-Mala caste which is classified as Scheduled Caste in Andhra Pradesh and his family comes under the below poverty line category,” read an observation in a document titled - Record of findings of the Commission in the case of suicide of SC Scholar Rohith Vemula at the University of Hyderabad.
Dontha Prashanth, one of the five students rusticated along with Rohith Vemula, said the report was atrocious. “The report is only meant to save the Union ministers of the BJP and vice-chancellor Appa Rao,” he said.
The NCSC in a record dated June 22, stated that Rohit Chakravarthy Vemula belongs to Hindu-Mala caste.
“The report of Guntur district collector, received by the NCSC, states that as per the available documentary evidence, Rohith Chakravarthy Vemula belongs to Hindu-Mala caste which is classified as Scheduled Caste in Andhra Pradesh and his family comes under the below poverty line category,” read an observation in a document titled - Record of findings of the Commission in the case of suicide of SC Scholar Rohith Vemula at the University of Hyderabad.
(With inputs from PTI)