"Justice To Rohit Vemula, Dignity for Dr Ratan Lal"
Normally I prefer writing in Hindi because I think that those whom I would like to understand what I have to say, do not know English, and those who know English wouldn't like to understand what I would like to say. But here the idea is that those who wouldn't like to understand what I have to say, should at least read what is being said.
The murder of Rohit Vemula, which is being rightly called an 'institutional murder', because as we should know, Rohit who was a dalit PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, committed suicide on 17 January 2016, as from July 2015 the University stopped paying him a fellowship of 25,000 rupees per month after he was found "raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)," as part of institute's disciplinary inquiry, and Rohit had been protesting against this for months. The role of ABVP, Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreye and the Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani in this episode have been questioned by the protestors. Crocodile tears are being shed now, but a life has gone and many like him continue to suffer. Ratan Lal is one of them.
Ratan Lal, is a friend, and that is not the reason for raising my concern. Ratan Lal is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the prestigious Hindu College, University of Delhi, writes a lot, is a vociferous speaker who can hold his audience almost hypnotically, involves himself in every social and political issue of significance, has courage to question the wrong and is a nature loving person. He comes from a humble background, studied in Hindi medium but did well as a student and researcher at University of Delhi, and got an opportunity to teach at Hindu College and is now the senior most teacher in the Department of History. Having been trained under Prof D N Jha and Prof K M Shrimali, he has authored very interesting books on Indian History.
Now Ratan Lal is being hounded by the College Administration and he has been running from pillar to post with no result. The reason is not just that he is a Dalit, but also that you cannot invoke law against persons who have the money power. Hindu College is a College being run by a Trust but in actuality it is being treated as the personal fiefdom of the present Chairman of the Trust SHRI S.N.P.PUNJ, whose family or he personally has absolutely no contribution in the establishment of the College more than 100 years ago, but invokes all legal interpretation to literally claim that the College is his private property and the Teaching and non-teaching staff are his own employees. Sh Punj has notoriously tired to dismiss two OBC members of teaching faculty at Hindu College, who are fighting their battle in the court of law. In fact if you write his name on Google Search, you will get references to just many of the Court Cases, and later somewhere option of Hindu College will also come.
Actually Hindu College was founded in 1899, by Late Shri Krishan Dassji Gurwale. In the backdrop of the nationalist struggle against British Raj. Some prominent citizens including Shri Gurwale Ji, decided to start a college that would provide nationalist education to the youth, while being non-elitist and non-sectarian. Originally, the college was housed in a humble building in Kinari Bazar, Chandni Chowk, and it was affiliated to Punjab University as there was no University in Delhi at that time. As the college grew, it faced a major crisis in 1902. The Punjab University warned the college that the University would disaffiliate the college if the college fails to get a proper building of its own. But fortunately, Rai Bahadur Lala Sultan Singh came to rescue the college from this crisis. He donated a part of his historic property, which originally belonged to Colonel James Skinner, at Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, to the college. The college functioned from there till 1953. When the University of Delhi took birth in 1922, Hindu College along with Ramjas College and St. Stephen's College were subsequently affiliated to the University, making them the first three institutions to be affiliated with University.
Hindu College was a centre for intellectual and political debate during India’s freedom struggle, especially during the Quit India Movement. This is the only college in Delhi to have a Students’ Parliament since 1935, which in fact, provided a platform to many national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarojini Naidu, Annie Besant, Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Subhash Chandra Bose for motivating the youth. Responding whole-heartedly to Gandhi Ji's Quit India call in 1942, the college played a leading role in India’s freedom struggle as some teachers and students of the college even went to prison and had closed its gates for several months.
Ratan Lal is actually the true follower of the traditions of the Hindu College. He has raised his voice on many issues of concern and in favour of the students and teaching community. These were never liked by the establishment at Hindu College. But reasons for heartburn are many more. The first cause was when a residential establishment in depleted condition, considered to be heritage building, was handed over to Ratan Lal for his official accommodation as per rules. After several requests when the College did not provide any grant for the repair of the place, Ratan Lal, who had just received some arrears for his promotion, spent a considerable amount with intimation and information to the College for making the place livable, knowing that this is where he shall stay till his retirement. Since the place has a small lawn, the whole place was decorated with plants and a bust of Dr Bheem Rao Ambedkar was also placed in the lawn. This steered the hornets nest. It again was making the establishment uncomfortable because the plan was to evacuate Ratan Lal and make the place of some commercial use. In fact the accommodation allotted to the Non-teaching employee in the adjoining section was vacated and later allotted to the office of Sulabh International, to whom the cleanliness responsibilities have been outsourced. Not to sop here, on the other-side a huge pit of 20 X 20 X 20 feet has been dug and all the garbage of the College is being dumped there in the name "compost" making, which emanates nasty smell and also methane if there is a water due to rains. The leaves piled up there are in condition that they can catch fire and spread to nearby Chemistry Laboratory or the Chemistry store, which also has cylinders apart from chemicals of different kinds. The idea is to humiliate and harass Ratan Lal and force him to leave the accommodation and also teach him a lesson to dare erect the bust of Babasaheb Bheem Rao Ambedkar Ji.
Systematic targeting of Ratan Lal has been sent in complaints and appeals to the University and College Authorities as under everal times in past nearly a year, and has not been replied :
1. Deliberately snatching his paper and arbitrarily dividing his class, forcing to work like junior most teacher (more work-load than the sanctioned strength).
2. Deliberately withheld his TA for the month of June 2015, without furnishing any rules and regulations of Delhi University.
3. The construction of the Botanical Garden surrounded by huge walls next to my house, without keeping in mind the direction of the flow of heavy rain water and proper drainage mechanism. Consequently, the lawn of his house gets converted into a pond in heavy rains, children have to wade through the dirty water to go to school. The water logging also invites mosquitoes and insects apart from littering his garden with all the waste that flows with drain water and creates health hazards. The area is deliberately kept dark which has created security threat.
4. In a further twist of events leading to his harassment is the fact that the house (adjacent to my house) which was earlier allotted to an employee of the college has now been allotted to a private agency to run the office for sanitation work. The purpose is intentional- humiliation as well as invasion into my privacy. This has also created security threat for him and his family members.
5. As if this was not enough to humiliate him, recently a ‘compost’ pit (garbage pit) on the other side of his house has been dug up. This ‘compost’ pit has become a dump yard for all sorts of garbage, dry leaf and is bound to become a source of foul smell. It is also situated between the chemistry lab on the one side and the chemistry store room on the other. There is huge pile of dry leaf in the open ‘compost’, therefore, in case of fire it may cost anything including life. At this site the former Principal used to throw all sorts of garbage including broken toilet seats. This is a deliberate attempt to force him to vacate the house. It smacks some hidden agenda to his life as well.
6. It is not out of context to mention that there is a bust of Baba Saheb on his campus .A letter mentioning his community name, “To insinuate that any action against you is being directed to harass you simply because you belong to SC Category…”was also served on him by the Chairman, Governing Body in recent past.
7. Forwarding him a representation of a fictitious woman, Monica Rai, without verifying her identity. Her representation was quite derogatory, however, he was forced to reply. This was nothing but conspiracy to implicate him in a fake case.
Finally, Ratan Lal has approached Delhi Police for justice. On 5th February 2016, a complaint was filed by Ratan Lal at the Maurice Nagar Police Station to register an FIR against the Officiating Principal, Dr. Anju Srivastav and others. In response to the first reminder submitted on 3rd of March, he was requested by the Police Station on 4th of March to submit more relevant documents which may help in the investigation. As the matter was serious in nature, he duly submitted some of the relevant documents to SHO’s office on 09.03.16, which were enough to prove the discriminatory and atrocious action and behaviour of the Hindu College Authorities. He also sent number of photographs to the SHO through whatsapp. On 29.03.16, he gave a second reminder with regard to his complaint. On 4th and 6th of April 2016, he personally met the DCP, Shri Madhur Varma and the Police Commissioner, Shri Alok Verma respectively and apprised them with the matter and submitted a representation to them.
It is indeed a matter of deep pain and anguish that more than two months have lapsed but no action has been taken in the matter. There is a saying that Justice delayed is Justice denied and if a Professor is a victim of continuous harassment and atrocities and there is no action on the part of the police in the capital of the country, one can imagine the condition of the dalits in other parts of the country! It seems that either the college authorities are considering themselves above the law of the country or the police or the police is deliberately protecting them. Are they waiting for some unwarranted act, such as Rohith Vemula to happen? Will the concerned officers wake up then? The entire ‘event’ is not only affecting his personal, family and professional life but also social life. He is in deep mental and psychological pain and crisis.
I call upon my friends and colleagues who have even little bit concern for Human Rights, Social Justice and the Right of Dalits to live with dignity to join me in the movement : "Justice To Rohit Vemula, Dignity for Dr Ratan Lal".
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