Rohith Vemula’s suicide: Turning Point For Politics In India

Rohith Vemula’s suicide follows a long history of discrimination against Dalits in universities and other centres of higher education. Could this be a turning point for Dalit and student politics in India?

- Deepti Sreeram

The year was 2012. At a Central University campus in Hyderabad, student protesters had encircled the then acting Vice Chancellor (VC). Despite repeated attempts at initiating a dialogue on student issues at the university campus, the VC had literally walked away from any form of engagement. Taking matters into their hands, the protesters finally found a chance to have a talk with the vc as she made her way to the parking lot. In polite tones, a first generation ST student activist began the conversation: “Ma’am, see we...” Interrupting him, the VC replied with an expression of deep revulsion, “Talk to me in proper legal English.”

In 2014, the same student was rusticated along with two others for allegedly breaking the glass doors of the university library during a protest. Even in the absence of proof linking the student to the incident or the fact that the strike was called by the university’s students council — thus bringing in a large number of students, anyone of whom could have broken the doors in the ensuing struggle with the administration — the blame fell squarely on the shoulders of the student activist who had many a time called out the university’s blatant caste discrimination.

“The students’ council had given a letter to the proctor and the vc saying that they would be responsible in case anything adverse happened during the course of the protest,” the student tells me on condition of anonymity. “But they did not take any action against the students’ council. Instead, they rusticated us; that, too, when the 16-member library staff had given a letter stating that they had not seen anyone of us breaking the glass.” As of now, the case against the three students, all belonging to socially and economically backward communities, is pending at the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad.