It has been three years since Rohith passed away after hanging himself in a friend’s room.
 
Many say that Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student and a PhD candidate at the University of Hyderabad, was a victim of institutional murder, often inflicted on Dalits and marginalised like him. Many believe that casteism killed the young scholar.
 
He was one of the five PhD students who had been expelled for successfully protesting the high-handedness of the authorities, sleeping out in the open since the night of January 4, 2016, when the doors to their rooms were illegally locked though they had been quietly studying in their rooms following the suspension. SabrangIndia had carried a story on the protest on January 12. His colleagues were in a day-long meeting and it appears that Rohith Vemula hanged himself in another room of his friend-colleague on Sunday evening. The 28-year-old, hailed from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
 
His letter is a searing reminder of how little has changed when it comes to offering an unconditional opportunity to bright marginalised students in prejudiced and casteist democracies.
 
Good morning,
 
I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write.
 
I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan.
 
I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt.
 
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.
 
I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense.
 
Maybe I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past.
 
I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That’s pathetic. And that’s why I am doing this.
 
People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don’t believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds.
 
If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that.
 
Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive.
 
“From shadows to the stars.”
 
Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing.
 
To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future.
 
For one last time,
 
Jai Bheem
 
I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself.
 
No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act.
 
This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this.
 
Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone.
 
Rajeev Ramachandran, a journalist at MediaoneTV, thought of writing to Carl’s wife Ann Druyan seeking her response to the protests following Rohith’s suicide. He posted her response on his Facebook page.
 
In her reply, she said:
 
Dear Rajeev Ramachandran,
Deeply grateful to you for writing to me about Rohit Vemula, whose death and lost promise I mourn.
 
To read his suicide note and to learn the details of his predicament is to get a vivid inkling of the actual cost of bias to our civilization. If we could somehow quantify the totality of lost contributions and innovations as a result of prejudice, I believe we would find it staggering.
 
You tell me, Rajeev: Is it possible that the attention paid to Rohit’s story will lessen its chronic repetition? I am trying to find something hopeful in an otherwise heartbreaking example of needless suffering and squandered potential.
 
Truly,
Ann
 

The post My birth is my fatal accident, remembering Rohith Vemula’s last letter appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image courtesy Orijit Sen

His report claims that “Vemula was a troubled individual and was unhappy for several reasons”. It essentially says no one and nothing is responsible for Rohith’s death. In one stroke, it whitewashes the discriminatory action taken by the Hyderabad Central University against Rohith and his fellow students. It absolves the BJP leaders at whose behest the action was apparently taken. 

The report does more: it rids India of caste like magic. Wear a blindfold, it seems to say, plug your ears, and caste discrimination will go away. To tell people who have been treated as unequal citizens that the inequality does not exist is cruelty. To tell those who are fighting caste inequality that it does not exist is cynical mockery.     

The report is not exactly a surprise, however. Indeed, it is quite predictable. Last year, the enquiry commission report submitted to the HRD ministry began the blindfolding and whitewashing exercise by claiming Rohith was not a dalit; and, of course, by absolving, of all responsibility, then HRD minister Smriti Irani and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya.

Not all of us need to be blindfolded or suffer from a wilful loss of memory. The Indian Cultural Forum reiterates its solidarity with all those who will continue to ask for justice for all the Rohiths of India.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

The post Panel to Probe Rohith Vemula’s Death: A Cynical Denial of Caste Discrimination appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
Shockingly, the  37 page report says that Appa Rao’s testimony states clearly that the suicide note of Rohith Vemula in no way “blames anyone” for his death. Significantly it is not the January 17, 2016 letter but the December 18 letter of Rohith Vemula where he spoke bitterly of the treatment of Dalit students at Hyderabad university, that clearly pointed to his state of mind and the non-responsiveness of the administration and the Vice Chancellor.

“The report further points out that nobody drove Rohith to commit suicide. It was an unfortunate incident, and the ministry will now study the recommendations to ensure that it’s not repeated,” said a source.The one-man panel of Allahabad high court former judge Ashok Kumar Roopanwal also recommended ways to improve the existing grievances redressal system at the university. Topping the list of recommendations were the setting up of an “appeal mechanism” that can be used by troubled students, and a counseling centre capable of providing immediate help.Citing Vemula’s lack of options to register an appeal after being removed from the campus, the report said: “The system of appeal will ensure that students’ rights are maintained.”
 
The panel also suggested the appointment of approachable academic counsellors, and the establishment of a grievance redressal cell for socially unprivileged students.Vemula’s death in January led to nationwide –and international- wave of protests against the NDA government and then HRD minister Smriti Irani. Agitating students said Vemula had been pushed to suicide by a suspension ordered by the V-C upon a prodding from Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya.
 
Vemula had committed suicide in January after the university management punished him for allegedly assaulting an ABVP leader.Roopanwal’s report was expected on August 1, 2017 but it was ostensibly delayed over fears that it may have derail the Parliament session.
 
Last October onwards, leaks from the report had begun to appear, leading former NCSCST Chairperson PL Punia in an interview to Sabrangindiato points out, pertinently, that the issue of which caste Rohith Vemula belonged to was never an issue that was part of the Roopanwal Commission’s mandate. Punia had also said that that the head of the one man commission appointed by the ministry of human resources development (MHRD) was ‘hired to hired to give a stamp of approval on what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime has been saying all over the country’
 
Rohith Vemula had committed suicide in January after the university management punished him for allegedly assaulting an ABVP leader.A panel appointed to investigate the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a research scholar at the University of Hyderabad, has not implicated anybody in its report to the human resources ministry.
 
Letter of Rohith Vemula, January 17, 2016
 
“Good morning, 
 I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. 

I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt. 
The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living. 
I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense. 

May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past. 

I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That’s pathetic. And that’s why I am doing this. 

People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don’t believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds. 
If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that. 
 Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive. 
 “From shadows to the stars.” 
 Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing. 
To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future. 
For one last time, Jai Bheem 
I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself. 
No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act. 
This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this. 
Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone. “
A Hindi translation of the note left by Rohith Vemula can be seen here
 
 
Who is to blame for Rohith’s death? Is there no need to pin both immediate, institutional blame as also accept, with humility, a wider social and political responsibility.
 
On December 18, 2015, Rohith allegedly wrote to the vice chancellor, a month before he took his life, to supply “10 mg of sodium azide to all the Dalit students at the time of admission… [and] a nice rope to the rooms of all Dalit students.” This handwritten letter should have been read as a precursor to what was coming. In the letter, Rohith allegedly goes on to say, “I request your highness to make preparations for the facility [of] ‘euthanasia’ for students like me. And I wish you and the campus rest in peace forever.” This communication squarely puts the blame on the university authorities and, first and foremost, on the vice chancellor. The letter traces the officially sanctioned “social boycott” of Dalit students after they took on a member of the ABVP for making derogatory remarks about Dalits. “Donald Trump will be a lilliput in front of you,” Rohith tells Appa Rao before offering the chilling advice to supply sodium azide and a rope to all Dalit students.
 
Is this a communication that points no fingers, raises no issues for the panel set up the MHRD?
 
 
Related Articles:
1.Rohith Vemula declared ‘not Dalit’ based on 2 out of 7 testimonies, councillor’s statement ignored
2.A letter that should shake our world: Dalit scholar suicide triggers outrage

The post NOT GUILTY says Justice Roopanwal exonerating VC, UoH Appa Rao Podile, also concludes Radhika & Rohith Not Dalit appeared first on SabrangIndia.

रोहित की मानसिक स्थिति को इस स्तर तक पहुंचा दिया गया कि उन्होंने आत्महत्या का फैसला ले लिया। रोहित के अंतिम खत से पहले भी उसने एक खत वीसी को लिखा था। उसमें उसकी मानसिक स्थिति का अंदाजा लगाया जा सकता था। आखिर ऐसा क्या हुआ कि एक वैज्ञानिक की तरह सोच रखने वाला इंसान आत्महत्या के ख्याल को दबा नहीं पाया।
 
हालांकि उनकी मौत को एक साल हो चुका है लेकिन सरकार की छत्रछाया में पल रहे कातिलों को अभी तक आंच नहीं आई है। इसके साथ ही इस आत्महत्या के लिए जिम्मेदार माने जा रहे वीसी अप्पाराव को सजा के बजाय प्रधानमंत्री ने खुद बेस्ट शिक्षक के अवॉर्ड से सम्मानित किया है।

Courtesy: National Dastak

The post अगर आज जिंदा होते तो अपना जन्मदिन मना रहे होते रोहित वेमुला…. appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In August 2015, when students from the Ambedkar Student Association (ASA) at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) had a skirmish with a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), little did they realise that their lives would never be the same again.

Following allegations of assault by the ABVP leader, the events that unfolded, including letters to and from two Union Ministers, saw the suspension of five Dalit students from the varsity. 

One of them, 26-year-old Rohith Vemula, would go on to pen a moving suicide note, before hanging himself in a hostel room, thereby sparking a massive Dalit youth movement across the country.

A year after his death, Dontha Prashanth, Seshaiah Chemudugunta, Vijay Pedapudi and Sunkanna Velpula, the four students who were suspended with Rohith, speak to TNM about life after his death, and how things have changed for them over the past year.

Outlining how all of them have cried themselves hoarse, demanding justice and equality, there is a sense that they are disheartened, but still remain resolute in their demands.

While three of them are still at the university completing their education, Sunkanna is now working in IIT Bombay as a post-doctoral fellow.

(Clockwise from left: Seshaiah, Vijay, Sunkanna and Prashanth)

Dontha Prashanth
I don't think we are any closer to justice than we were a year ago. The battle is longer, and we have to fight it out.

Rohith was a spirited and committed Ambedkarite. He was always the one who would constantly push you to take action. He always wanted to be present at the scene. He would write on every issue that was close to his heart, and he had no inhibitions about making his opinions public.

I miss those days of the struggle when we fought together, organizing protests, speaking out, and always standing up for what we felt was right.

It has not been a smooth year for us. We have been fighting against big people, heading ministries and institutions, who have complete government backing.

However, there are two sides to it. On one hand, our biggest hope was that 2016 witnessed a major awakening of Dalits. We came to the streets and fought for rights, despite countless accounts of backlash from the state and certain sections of the public.

The concern for individual rights has clearly grown among the youth, and they showed that they will fight their own battle.

On the other hand, we experienced injustice in its worst form, while battling harassment and discrimination. Even though the general public is with us, we have a tough time because we have taken on people in power, from the university administration to the government.

One thing has become clear to me as far as how these things work out. Look at the machinery involved. A person gets instituted by the BJP. When his authority is questioned, he gets support from union ministers to the Prime Minister. A case is filed against him, but still it makes no headway, clearly because there is pressure on the police.

In return, there are four or five cases slapped on the people who are fighting. They think that they can bring down our morale through this, but given the ultimate sacrifice that one has seen through Rohith, we will not stop fighting.

When people in remote villages can organise and fight against caste oppression, we, being in institutions of education have to speak up on the issue.

As far as justice is concerned, as Ambedkarites, we believe in constitutional methods. Those methods can only be implemented when people who believe in those same values, govern. 

With the institution led by casteist individuals and the country being headed by a person like Narendra Modi, there is not much hope. There is also constant state repression.

Despite all this, we won't step back from our fight and will continue our struggle for justice.

Seshaiah Chemudugunta
Not much has changed over the past year. The one good takeaway, is that the Ambedkar movement has spread across the nation following Rohith's death. 

I miss Rohith's intellectualism the most, especially his writings. I loved the things that he wrote and the way he criticised several things from the caste system to certain ideologies in society.

On a personal level, I miss the days when we all used to gather together in a room to eat beef, mutton and chicken biryani. We used to do it at least two or three times a week. After his death, those meals are not the same anymore. 

I have no hopes of justice presently, especially from an administration that considers his killer a 'science genius', and awards him for it.

The legal system also seems to be failing us, as the police are not taking the case forward citing some reason or the other, while it seems like a clear case of pressure from the top.

Rohith became a symbol of discrimination, but the root cause is far from solved. There are still many people like him, fighting the system and fighting injustice, and until that issue is addressed, our fight is far from over.

Sunkanna Velpula
When Rohith died, a mother lost her son, on whom she had her hopes and future aspirations pinned. We on the other hand, lost a true friend and a real Ambedkarite.

A face like Rohith's was lacking for the Dalit community, and his death really brought out one of the biggest Dalit movements since the independence of India.

However, I'm personally disheartened as nothing happened. We could not even shake the government. The entire system, whether it is the law, the police or the state, I realized that we can't even scratch the surface.
There have been many incidents of injustice to Dalits in the past across the country and also in Andhra Pradesh. In most of these cases, later justice is denied. We are suffering the same fate. We put a lot of effort, and put everything aside in the fight for justice, but there has been no change.

There is only one reason for this, and that's because caste is political. When the BJP and other political parties talk about the Dalits, and take sides or a particular stand, they're only looking at them like a voter base. 

As long as this mindset remains among the parties, of treating minorities purely as voters, there can be no real change that we can witness.

However, we will continue our struggle and continue to fight. We have no other option but to fight.

Vijay Pedupudi
What I miss most about Rohith, is the ideology that he portrayed and his enthusiasm for everything and every topic. People like him are much needed today for the Dalit society. 

We ourselves have been fighting with the inspiration that Rohith gave us, and what he stood for has become a common cause for many of us today.

I only wish that Rohith was with us today, to fight with us, along our side, but unfortunately he has left us and gone.

I don't even see an inkling of hope that we will get justice. The Centre is not ready to punish anyone involved in the case. Instead, it goes one step further to actually award the accused. It is an act that disrespects the constitution of this country.

There is only one message that such an act gives out. It is that the ruling government is not going to hear your voice and just wants dissenters to shut up.

I don't even have hope on the judiciary and the police, because the state government is also not taking any further action. The case is not even coming up for hearing in the High Court. 

However, we are fighting with hope, and our goal is to take the movement further, so it reaches the minds of the people and finally the government, which is when real change will happen.

Courtesy: The News Minute
 

The post ‘Fight is far from over’: Students suspended with Rohith Vemula, speak a year after his suicide appeared first on SabrangIndia.

मानव संसाधन विकास (एचआरडी) मंत्रालय ने ‘पीटीआई’ की ओर से दाखिल एक आरटीआई के जवाब में कहा, ‘संबंधित फाइल अभी विचारार्थ है, इसलिए इस वक्त रिपोर्ट की प्रति उपलब्ध नहीं कराई जा सकती है।’

बहरहाल, इसमें इस बात का जिक्र नहीं है कि सूचना का अधिकार (आरटीआई) अधिनियम के किस प्रावधान के तहत यह सूचना नहीं दी गई. आरटीआई अधिनियम के जिस संबंधित प्रावधान के तहत सूचना रोकी जा रही है सरकारी विभाग को उसका जिक्र करना होता है।

भाषा की खबर के अनुसार, हैदराबाद विश्वविद्यालय में हुए कार्यक्रमों की जांच के लिए एचआरडी मंत्रालय ने फरवरी में रिटायर्ड जस्टिस अशोक कुमार रूपनवाल के नेतृत्व में जांच आयोग गठित किया था. विश्वविद्यालय में हुए ये कार्यक्रम अंतत: रोहित वेमुला की मौत में परिणत हुए थे।

The post रोहित वेमुला की मौत पर जांच रिपोर्ट सार्वजनिक करने से केंद्र सरकार ने किया इनकार, RTI से मांगी गई थी सूचना appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Appa Rao went on a long leave on January 24 when students protested against the administration saying it was responsible for the scholar's death. Students alleged that VC Rao was responsible for the action against Rohith , which ultimately forced him to commit suicide. Appa Rao then proceeded on long leave. Prof. Vipin Srivatsav took over as in-charge vice chancellor.On Tuesday morning, Appa Rao joined duties after the leave. A section of the students, specially those from the sciences, and a large number of faculty members were present when Appa Rao took charge again. The Ambedkarite Students Association and AISF activists opposed this and launched a protest

VC Appa Rao was returning to occupy his seat after two months of absence. Senior journalist and commentator Dilip Mandal observes this move as a clear signal from the Centre: MHRD Minister Smruti Irani standing by a VC perceived to be at a complete distance from his students.

These videos here tell their own tale.

Police Brutality at Hyderabad Central University, March 22, 2016

Police Brutality at Hyderabad Central University Part Two, March 22, 2016

President of the JNU Students Union Union was scheduled to visit Hyderabad tomorrow. This is what he posted on Facebook at about 9.45 p.m.

Kanhaiya Kumar, JNUSU President will be visiting Rohith Vemula;s mother tomorrow after which he will meet the Joint Action Committee (JAC) at Hyderabad and also address the press at Vijayawada the day after.

Meanwhile at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Campous in Delhi, the Birsa-Ambedkar-Phule Students Association (BAPSA) has organised a protest burning the effigy of Vice Chancellor, HCU, Appa Rao.

Late night, some students of HCU have shared this "agenda for action" reportedly circulated by the Vcice Chancellor Appa Rao to prepare for today's resumption of duries as also the possible break up of the students' peaceful protest.

The post HCU Erupts: Plan to attack Unsuspecting protesting Students? appeared first on SabrangIndia.