The term injustice would fall far short in describing the casteist, humiliating treatment meted out to the family of Rohith Vemula all this while, by state institutions and sections of the media. It has been eight years since the institutional murder of the research scholar at Hyderabad Central University, which catalysed one of the largest anti-caste protests of the decade.
After all this time, recently, Telangana's investigating officers in their closure report have come up with a purely speculative and denigrating statement about the life of Rohith, arguing that his fear of having a fake caste certificate prompted suicidal thoughts. Such reports, which falsify the Dalit identity of Rohith, not only deny his personhood even after he is no more but also make a mockery of the collective life experiences of Rohith, Radhika Vemula, and Raja Vemula.
Amidst the extreme hardships of being Dalit and the immense pain of losing Rohith, the hyper scrutiny of their documents and the constant attempt to label them as liars, rather than holding BJP leaders Bandaru Dattatreya, Smriti Irani, N Ramachandra Rao, the then VC Appa Rao and ABVP leader Susheel Kumar accountable, is an outright denial of dignity.