Rohith Vemula’s death has created a political storm. Students have erupted in protest, demanding the resignation of HRD Minister Smriti Irani and state BJP leaders. Opposition leaders, most notably Rahul Gandhi, have joined the protest. The issue has become one of the rights of Dalit students and the discrimination they face.
Rohith Vemula’s mother is a tailor and his father was a security guard. Rohith was a doctoral candidate, a scholar, at one of the best central universities in the country. On January 17, Rohith hanged himself in a friend’s hostel room 15 days after he was suspended by the University of Hyderabad for his political activism, along with four other colleagues who also belonged to the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA).
The BJP and the HRD Minister insist that the issue is not a Dalit rights one. Smriti Irani has said that “The issue is not a Dalit vs non-Dalit one... crucial facts have been misinterpreted in a malicious attempt to create caste tensions.” State BJP leaders insist that the reason for the ASA members’ suspension and their conflict with the ABVP was “their support of terrorism”.