The raging controversy over the caste status of Rohith Vemula, the student whose suicide earlier this year had rocked the University of Hyderabad (UOH) has taken another twist.
Days after Retired Justice Ashok Roopanwal Commission’s report finding that Rohith was not a Dalit, a video of the research scholar has emerged online in which he could be seen and heard asserting his Dalit identity.
Rohith Vemula had hanged himself in the university hostel in January this year following his prolonged suspension from the University following a clash between the students Belonging to Ambedkar Students Association and BJP’s student wing Akhila Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad.
His suicide a triggered months long stir in the campus and took a political color as two union Ministers Smiriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya were accused of pressuring the university authorities to punish Rohith Vemula and his friends.
In the video, believed to have been shot six days before his suicide, he could be seen introducing himself as “I am Rohith Vemula. I am a Dalit coming from Guntur district. My mother has raise us”.
On his tiff with the ABVP, Rohith said in the video it was nothing new and he was arrested earlier. “In 2012 I was arrested and detained by the police for two days on the complaint lodged by the ABVP”.
On the episode of his suspension along with four other students, which was believed to be the cause of his suicide Rohith said in the video, “recently the university expelled us from the hostel premises and the notice which was served to us says our presence in public places in hostel premises and administration buildings can be treated as criminal act”.
Though in his suicide note Rohith did not name any body as responsible, the agitating students alleged that it was the result of social boycott and caste discrimination by the university authorities. They name the two union ministers and the university vice chancellor Appa Rao Podile as responsible for his death.
Rohith’s caste identity has become crucial as if he was Dalit those accused of abetting suicide can be booked under the harsher SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. Though the case was booked under the provisions of this act soon after the suicide the police has not taken any action so far.
On the timing of the release of video on Youtube, Rohith’s supporters say that the tape of the video had gone missing during the police lathi charge on the campus soon after the suicide and recently they found it in one of the computers.