Rohith Chakravarti Vemula (30 January 1989 – 17 January 2016) was a PhD student at the University of Hyderabad who committed suicide on 17 January 2016.
There was a controversy which extended over several months and in July 2015 the University reportedly stopped paying him a fellowship of ₹25,000 (US$370) per month after he was found "raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA)." as part of institute's disciplinary inquiry.
On 17 January 2016 Rohith Vemula committed suicide, hanging himself with a banner of the Ambedkar Students Association. In the suicide-note which he left behind, he blamed the "system" for his death.
His suicide sparked protests and outrage from across India and gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits, in which government educational institutions have been purportedly seen as hotbeds of caste-based discrimination against students belonging to depressed sections of the society at the behest of ABVP and RSS.
During the tenure of Smt Smriti Irani, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education vide Gazette Notification dated February, 2, 2016 appointed a Commission of Inquiry consisting of Justice Ashok Kumar Roopanwal (Retd.) to enquire into the events at the
University of Hyderabad, culminating in death of Shri Chakravarty R.Vemula, a research scholar with the following terms of reference :
(i) to enquire into the facts and circumstance leading to the death of Shri Chakravarti R.Vemula, a research scholar of University of Hyderabad, and fix responsibility for lapses, if any.
(ii) to review the existing grievance redressal mechanism for students at the University, and
to suggest improvements.
The Commission in its 41 page report, probably ignoring the terms of reference, says, "...Rohith Vemula's mother “branded” herself as Dalit to avail the benefits of reservation; expelling him from the hostel was the “most reasonable” decision the university could have taken; personal frustration, not discrimination, drove the 26-year-old PhD scholar to suicide; Union Ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani were only discharging their duties and there was no pressure on the Hyderabad Central University authorities."
Vemula’s decision to commit suicide, according to the probe, was wholly his own and not abetted by either the university administration or the government.
Nothing can be more farcical than what this report has to say. It is intriguing that the Commission has nothing to comment on the Governments withdrawl of Non NET UGC Scholarships. It again goes on to prove that the Modi Government continues to be more insensitive to the concerns of the Dalits, OBCs and much more importantly to the slow death being served to the Higher Education in India.
Rohith was in in need of scholarship and hostel. The problems in both was able to get neither because Government of India is on the process to sell off Higher Education. On the top of it the so called brokers of "Hindu" Identity, are calling the struggles of social justice 'casteist'!
No word has been said on scrapping of fellowships by subsequent Central Governments . Although there are serious and pressing questions about the nature of the NET/JRF, the indisputable fact is that the JRF picks out a very small subset of students to support for M.Phil./PhD research – the figure of 6400 fellowships in 2010-2011 works out to research support for just 4.6% of the 137,668 students registered for research in the humanities, social sciences and sciences across India in that period. This is hardly the kind of research investment any country, especially a developing one like India, needs.
In order to meet the challenges of a potential elite bias in eligibility of research – a possibility made even more salient after the implementation of OBC reservations -– the UGC instituted the thoroughly misnamed ‘Non-NET fellowship’ in order to provide minimum research support for non-JRF/SRF students (many of whom are NET-qualified) enrolled in M.Phil./PhD programmes in central universities. This support, to the tune of Rs. 5000 and Rs 8000 respectively plus a small annual contingency grant, was intended to be just enough for students to be financially independent from their families, who are invariably tapped as the primary source of financial support.
At its 510th meeting held on October 7, 2015 the UGC decided to discontinue the non-NET fellowship programme.
Under UPA I, at the WTO-GATS negotiations in 2005, the Indian government had already made an ‘offer’ of opening up the higher education sector to the international education trade. Teachers and students organisations across the country have consistently condemned the decision of the Central government to open up India’s highest education sector to GATS since 2005, but this opposition did not make a whit of difference to the UPA regime. The BJP appears more than willing to go down this disastrous neo-liberal route blazed by the UPA.
Equally disturbing is the MHRD’s indication that the Review Committee consider whether economic and other criteria are to be applied to eligibility for the non-NET fellowships. Were this indeed to be accepted, the move would convert the non-NET fellowship from one that invests in Indian research into what are called merit-cum-means fellowships in university systems. Even if this restricted non-NET fellowship could escape the stringent GATS restrictions, by being argued for as a levelling- of-the-field type of measure, receipt of such a fellowship would never be able to even minimally off-set the costs of research itself. Significantly increased tuition fees under the WTO-GATS regime, shall take away alł, and then some, of the restricted non-NET fellowship.
To conclude, the 'institutional murder' of Rohith Vemula has been 'justified' by the 'system' which Rohith blamed the in his suicide note, and this has to be taken seriously.
The Report on Rohith is challenge to all who are committed to the cause of social justice and real political freedom of our country to continue the agitation for this cause and openly condemn this bias report on Rohith's suicide.
