It is good that Telangana police has decided to reinvestigate the case of institutional murder of Rohith Vemula. The May 3rd closure report was simply outrageous. This reflects what ails our system and therefore needs a thorough overhauling. The Indian power structure, bureaucracy, police, judiciary, media and academia now need proportional representation. Though Rahul Gandhi has been consistently speaking in terms of increasing the reservation, it would be good for him to explain now that the only solution to the Indian crisis is proportional representation at every level. It is because, as a society, we have failed to be sensitive to the issues of dignity, self-respect and human rights of the most marginalised communities.
To say that Rohith Vemulla committed suicide because he was afraid of his ‘caste’ identity which according to police was not a Dalit. The issue of Rohith Vemula is not the first one and not the last one. How can the police and administration be so naive and insensitive to ignore the dirty facts that India’s’ academic institutions’ and so-called institutions of ‘merit’ have become the ‘death trap’ for the Dalit-Adivasi students in particular and others marginalised in general? The investigative agency should have understood the caste dynamics in these institutions which are becoming centres for psychological and physical oppression for the Dalit Adivasi students.
It seems that the remnants of the old government remained with the police administration which was unambiguously protecting shamelessly those in power who looked down upon Rohith Vemula and ignored the dirty tricks of the caste elite in these institutions protected by the brahman-Bania elite of the ruling party at the Centre. What is most shocking is that it exonerates all as if nothing had happened.
Rohith Vemula suffered from not only caste oppression but also economic marginalisation. He and his friends were facing a severe financial crisis and were thrown away from the University hostel insensitively by the administration. The dirty tricks of the administration were protected by the ruling parties TRS and BJP. The best way for politicians is to bring issues of caste and deviate from the real issues.
The fact is Rohith Vemula’s death was an institutional murder of a Dalit scholar who faced injustice and unfairness because of his caste identity. As I said, Rohith’s caste was not the first one and not the last but it somehow got linked with the feelings of the SC-ST-OBC students all over the country, who face regular injustice in these institutions.
The role of UGC and the Ministry of HRD was not merely disappointing but dubious in protecting the administration. It would be good for the central and state governments to form specific time-bound commissions to investigate such issues and give specific guidelines which should be made mandatory to be implemented by all the institutions. The Union government did nothing in this regard.
India can not move ahead and become a developed nation unless more than 75% of its population suffers from caste crime and is discriminated against at different levels of institutions. We need to build up an order based on citizenship, strengthen the government institutions and provide proportional representation to all in these institutions. Despite proportionality, India will need an anti-caste movement at all levels as envisaged by Baba Saheb Ambedkar and other legends of the social justice movement. For that to happen, we will need to build up our education system not on the ‘glory of an imaginary past but based on humanism, creativity and scientific temper’ as espoused in our constitution.
Good that the Telangana government has decided to reinvestigate it but it must investigate whether the police should have submitted the report without the consent of the current government. Was the submission of the report in the court a deliberate attempt to show the current government in poor light? Whatever has happened the state government must be careful and ask its department to share their reports with the government before submitting them to the court. Hope the new investigation will be done fairly so that the guilty are prosecuted and punished.