Rohit vemula caste,Rohit Vemula is Vaddera

(S.Ravi Seshu)

Rohit Chakravarthi Vemula committed suicide on 17 January 2016 but the puzzle over his caste is still haunting people and governments. Contradicting the Guntur district collector’s ratification, the Justice (Retd) AK Roopanwal Commission, set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to look into the University of Hyderabad PhD scholar’s suicide, made it clear that he is not a Dalit and he resorted to the extreme step due to personal frustration.

Quoting ‘sources’ almost all newspapers published a story along with the happy note of the UoH Vice-Chancellor P.Appa Rao on Friday. News channels like ABN-Andhra Jyothi ran a story in support of the VC. ‘

Rohith’s mother Radhika Vemula “branded” herself as a Dalit to avail benefits of reservation, according to the 41-page report submitted by the one-man judicial commission that was constituted on January 28 after Rohith hanged himself in a hostel room on the university campus. The investigator came to this conclusion based on the deposition of over 50 people, a majority of whom were university teachers, officers and staff members. The report supported the UoH decision to expel Rohit from the hostel and dubbed it as ‘the most reasonable decision.’ The commission said that then HRD minister Smriti Irani and union minister Bandaru Dattatreya were only ‘discharging their duties’ and that they did not put any pressure on the university authorities to expel Vemula and four others from the hostel.

The Commission concluded that Radhika branded herself as a Mala (a scheduled caste community) and managed to get a certificate from the then corporator. It cited Radhika’s application for her younger son Raja Chaitanya Kumar’s birth certificate in 2014 as evidence to prove that she doesn’t belong to a Dalit community. In that application, Radhika disclosed her caste as Vaddera, a backward class. On the day of Rohit’s suicide too, his father told reporters that they belong to Vaddera community.

The entire story goes against the Collector of Guntur Kantilal Dande, who submitted a report to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) in June stating that the 26-year-old student is indeed a Dalit.

“As per the available documentary evidence with the Tahsildar Guntur, Sri. Rohith Chakravarthy Vemula belongs to Hindu Mala caste, which is classified as Scheduled Caste in Andhra Pradesh and his family comes under Below Poverty Line. The statements recorded from the grandmother of Sri Rohith Chakravarthy Vemula and others are also enclosed herein for favour of information,” the Collector mentioned.

Rohit’s brother, Raja, on Thursday, alleged that the Centre is targeting his family on their caste. The supporters of Vemula, who are not happy with the one-man Commission’s observations, are planning to hold protest on the campus.