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Irony of Vemula Family Embracing Buddhism is Not Lost on Anyone

Vemula’s family embracing Buddhism dents BJP’s plans of presenting itself as a messiah of dalits, writes Ajoy Bose.

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The dramatic embrace of Buddhism by late Hyderabad University Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula’s brother and mother is no ordinary religious conversion. Nor can the symbolism of this much-publicised event on Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary, and on the eve of the Hindu festival Ram Navami, be minimised. It has reopened the ugly wounds of Dalits oppressed over the past many centuries by the Hindu establishment that Ambedkar fought vigorously to topple. At the same time, the latest reverberation of Rohith Vemula’s suicide has underlined the contemporary relevance of caste struggle in India today.

For the Modi government and the Sangh Parivar, the conversion of Raja and Radhika Vemula to Buddhism could not have come at a more inopportune moment. The tragic suicide of the Dalit research scholar after being hounded by the Hyderabad University authorities was widely perceived by the Dalit community as the handiwork of central ministers and elected representatives of the ruling party. The clumsy handling of the death and its fiery aftermath by the BJP leadership only compounded matters and further dented the Sangh Parivar’s recent social outreach campaign to woo Dalits into its fold.

The Rohit Vemula suicide and the mindless inept manner in which central ministers like Smriti Irani responded to the controversy has set back the RSS almost a decade in its painstaking attempts to reach out to the Dalits.
Senior Leader of the Sangh Parivar


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Snapshot

Symbolism of Conversion to Buddhism

  • Raja and Radhika Vemula embracing Buddhism comes at a time when both BJP and the Sangh Parivar are trying hard to woo Dalits.
  • Vemula family rejecting the Hindu faith and turning to Buddhism overshadowed eulogies by the Prime Minister on Ambedkar.
  • The instance has revived memories of Ambedkar’s own deep distrust and hostility towards Hinduism.
  • Symbolism doesn’t bode well for ruling party that has been blamed for Rohith’s death by the bereaved family.
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Irony of Conversion

Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah had sought to dispel the perception that the government and ruling party is anti-Dalit, by going out of their way to hail Babasaheb Ambedkar as one of India’s tallest leaders on his 125th birth anniversary. The RSS too had pulled out all the stops, asking its cadre for the first time to sing the Sangh anthem presenting a guard of honour in front of Ambdekar’s statue in Bhopal.

Unfortunately, the eulogies to the Dalit icon by the Prime Minister and ruling party president as well as the salutations of the RSS appear to have been completely overtaken by the riveting images of a grieving mother and brother rejecting the Hindu faith and instead, turning to Buddhism to escape the oppression and stigma of the caste system that they felt had led to Rohith’s demise.

The political implications of the conversion ceremony – widely covered by the electronic and print media – were unmistakable, even though both Raja and Radhika Vemula maintained that this was their personal decision brought on by Rohit’s own inclination towards Buddhism. It has revived memories of Ambedkar’s own deep distrust and hostility towards the Hindu establishment which had led him to a similar decision to abandon the faith of his birth and embrace Buddhism.

“From today, my mother and I will be truly free,” declared Rohith’s brother after the conversion ceremony. “Free from shame. Free from daily humiliation. Free from the guilt of praying to the same God in whose name our people have been tortured for centuries.” Powerful words that could haunt the BJP whose mentor RSS vehemently espouses the cause of a Hindu Rashtra as it seeks Dalit votes in upcoming elections.

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Vemula’s  family embracing Buddhism dents BJP’s plans of presenting itself as a messiah of dalits, writes Ajoy Bose.
Rohith Vemula’s mother Radhika and brother Naga Chaitanya Vemula embrace Buddhism on the occasion of BR Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary in Mumbai on Thursday. (Photo: PTI)
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The BJP’s Worries

What makes matters worse for the Modi regime, is that Rohith’s bereaved family has made no bones about blaming his death on the BJP leadership. While demanding the immediate sacking and arrest of the Hyderabad University Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao and a special investigation into Rohith’s death by the Telengana state government, Raja Vemula made it clear at the conversion ceremony that he was aiming right at the top of the central government.

“The real political culprits, however, are the BJP leaders Venkiah Naidu, Smriti Irani and the Prime Minister himself”, he asserted at the conversion ceremony.

The Prime Minister and his party are already facing a spirited rebuttal from Dalit leaders like Mayawati for what she described as “fake love” for Babasaheb and the Dalits to fool them. But as formidable as Behenji’s political stature among Dalits is, it is the Vemula family’s emotional denunciation of the basic foundations of Sangh ideology that could ultimately prove even more damaging to BJP’s political agenda of rounding up at least a section of the Dalit vote.

(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist)

Also read:

4 Times Smriti Irani Misled the Parliament on Rohith Vemula

Rohith Vemula’s Suicide: Beyond Identity in Campuses

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Topics:  Narendra Modi   BJP   Rohith Vemula Suicide 

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