I/II. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/behind-dalit-student-suicide-how-his-university-campus-showed-him-the-door/
Behind Rohit Vemula’s suicide: how Hyderabad Central University showed him the door >From July, the university stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of Rs 25,000 (excluding HRA), with friends alleging that he was targeted for raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA). Written by Sreenivas Janyala | Hyderabad | Updated: January 19, 2016 10:36 am At a protest over the suicide of Rohith Vemula, outside the HRD Ministry in New Delhi, Monday. (express Photo by: Tashi Tobgyal) On January 30, Rohith Chakravarthi Vemula would have turned 27. Yesterday, the Dalit research scholar, suspended from Hyderabad Central University over a political dispute, told his friends that since his stipend was on hold, he was unable to give them “even a small treat”. Hours later, he hanged himself. Today, the suicide of the second-year PhD student of Life Sciences inside a hostel room sparked protests across the country and led to an FIR being filed against local BJP MP and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya under the SC/ST Act and on charges of abetment to suicide. Last August, the minister had written to the HRD ministry accusing the university of being “a mute spectator” after a group of Dalit students, including Rohith, clashed with an ABVP leader. App users click here [Video] While the HRD Ministry has decided to send a fact-finding team to “look into the matter”, The Indian Express spoke to Rohith’s friends and faculty on campus, police and officials to piece together the sequence of events in the run-up to his death. It shows how Rohith was steadily isolated by campus authorities and his appeals — many of them anguished and sometimes cloaked in irony — went largely unheard. READ | PM Modi must apologise, sack ministers, demands Kejriwal Consider this: * From July, the university stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of Rs 25,000 (excluding HRA), with friends alleging that he was targeted for raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA). A university official denied the allegation, blaming the delay on “paperwork”. * On August 5, the university set up an inquiry against Rohith and four other ASA members, two days after they allegedly assaulted ABVP leader N Susheel Kumar. * On August 17, Dattatreya wrote to HRD Minister urging action and claiming that the “Hyderabad University… has in the recent past, become a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics”. * After a series of flip-flops, the five were suspended in September. On December 17, the decision was upheld. * On January 3, after the sanction was confirmed, the five moved out of their hostel rooms to a tent they set up inside the campus and began a “relay hunger protest”. * On Sunday, police recovered a “suicide note” in the room where Rohith hanged himself. It read: “I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster.” Rohit’s suicide letter [Facsimile of the letter] The day after, at the mortuary of Osmania Hospital, Rohith’s mother cried out: “I used to proudly tell everyone in my village that my son was doing PhD at Hyderabad University. Today, I have come to collect his dead body.’’ Hailing from Gurazala near Guntur, Rohith’s father Manikumar works as a security guard at a private hospital while mother V Radhika is a tailor — he had an elder sister and a younger brother. “After the stipend was stopped, his family was struggling to support him. He borrowed Rs 40,000 from a friend and was living frugally. Almost every day, he used to say that his money was stuck,’’ said Velmula Sankanna, a fellow PhD scholar and one of the five suspended. READ | My birth is my fatal accident: Full text of Dalit student Rohit’s suicide letter “In December, Rohith wrote an angry letter to the V-C, sarcastically asking him to provide euthanasia facilities for Dalit students. Since then, he was scared to go to the administration building and ask about his stipend. He became silent and withdrawn. He said that he was falling into depression because he was being defeated by the system at every turn. He blamed himself, his caste, and the circumstances around him. He did not take much interest in anything except studies,’’ said Sankanna, a close friend. When contacted, an official from the V-C’s office said, “His stipend was stuck due to lapses in processing the paperwork. On many occasions, the funds arrive late and are disbursed in lump sums,’’ the official said. In the “suicide note”, Rohith wrote that he was expecting Rs 1.75 lakh in arrears from the university. The note also betrays the anguish that marked the final days of Rohith who joined the university in 2012 and received a Junior Research Fellowship from CSIR in April 2014. Stating that this was “the only letter I am getting to write’’, he wrote: “I always wanted to be a writer — a writer of science. Like Carl Sagan. I love science… stars. But then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second-hand. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs coloured. It has become truly difficult to live without getting hurt… Maybe I am wrong in understanding the world. There was no urgency but I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life.’’ According to friends, Rohith and other ASA members had gathered to discuss the future of the suspended students on Sunday. “At 4 pm, he said he had to finish some work and left us. When he did not return till 6 pm, we started searching for him. By then his mother had also called us, saying that Rohith had called her and sounded very depressed. She said he had abruptly cut the call, and had stopped answering her calls. Then, we found him hanging from the ceiling fan in a friend’s room (207), which was also the ASA activity room. He used a ASA banner to hang himself,’’ said Krishna Kumar, a close friend. According to friends and officials, the five ASA members got into trouble in the first week of August 2015, when they protested against the hanging of Mumbai-blasts accused Yakub Memon and condemned the ABVP attack on the screening of the documentary ‘Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai’ in Delhi University. On August 3, the ASA held a demonstration at the Hyderabad campus. But then, the ABVP’s university unit president Kumar posted a comment on Facebook, calling the ASA members “goons”. “When we confronted Susheel in his hostel room, he tendered a written apology in the presence of the university’s security officer. But the next day he got himself admitted in a hospital and alleged that members of ASA had manhandled him. The university ordered an inquiry while ABVP lodged a police complaint,’’ said an ASA member, speaking on condition of anonymity. When contacted, Kumar maintained that he was “roughed up by around 40 ASA members who barged into my room”. It was then that the ABVP wrote to BJP MP from Secunderabad and Union Minister Dattatreya, alleging that the ASA members were indulging in “casteist” and “anti-national” activities. “I forwarded the letter on my official letterhead to Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. I do not know what happened after that. ABVP or BJP has nothing to do with that,’’ said Dattatreya. Irani, however, refused to get drawn into the controversy. “I don’t want to make a political statement. My condolences to the family of the deceased,” she was quoted by ANI. She added that her department does not interfere in the administration of universities. Officials at Irani’s office said they forwarded that letter to the university’s Vice-Chancellor Prof P Appa Rao. The ministry’s two-member probe committee of Shakila T Shamsu and Surat Singh have been asked to report back in a day. “We sent an explanation regarding what happened on the campus. The decision to suspend the students was done after a thorough inquiry by a Proctorial Board and an executive committee. Instead of suspending them fully, we ensured that they could attend classes. They were barred from the hostel and participating in any non-academic activities and politics in the campus,’’ said Prof Rao. While Rohith, Sankanna, D Prashanth, Vijay Kumar and Sesu Chemudugunta were suspended, ABVP’s Kumar was let off with a warning. ABVP Telangana Unit member and National Executive committee member Dilip Kumar alleged that when the Proctorial Board suggested suspension in its report on August 31, the five students put pressure on then Vice-Chancellor R P Sharma to revoke their move. “Concerned by this, Kumar’s mother filed a petition in the High Court at Hyderabad on September 3 seeking to direct the university to submit an action taken report,” said Dilip Kumar. The court directed the university registrar to submit a report but the university sought more time. Meanwhile, the university decided to go by the Proctorial Board’s recommendations and suspended the students. The decision was conveyed to the students on December 17 and the next day, the five suspended students also approached the High Court seeking revocation of their suspension. The court clubbed both matters and posted it for hearing on January 19. Said V-C Prof Rao: “I took charge on September 22 and the matter came up in the court which sought an action taken report. But we sought time to submit the report and in the meantime, we discussed how best to sort out the issue. Even after they were suspended, on January 13, I sat for two hours with the Joint Action Committee members and we discussed the upcoming court hearing on January 19,’’ Rao said. On Monday, based on a complaint from Prashanth, a case was registered at the Gachibowli police station against Dattatreya, Vice Prof Rao, BJP legislator N Ramachander Rao and ABVP’s Kumar, on charges of levelling false allegations and abetment to suicide. II. http://thewire.in/2016/01/18/expelled-by-his-university-dalit-scholar-commits-suicide-in-a-hostel-room-19514/ Students Demand Action Against Union Minister For Role in Scholar’s Suicide BY THE WIRE STAFF ON 18/01/2016 File picture of Rohit Vemula (right), a PhD scholar from Hyderabad Central University who was found hanging in a hostel room. Credit: The News Minute Students in Hyderabad University have alleged that a letter written last year by Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya to the HRD Minister Smriti Irani led to a sequence of events ending in the suicide of PhD scholar Rohit Vemula. The agitating students want the Minister to be charged with “abetting” the suicide. Police have filed an FIR against the minister under the SC/ST Act. The minister has rubbished the allegations. Rohit Vemula had been expelled by the authorities of the University and was found hanging in a hostel room on Sunday. He was among five research scholars who were expelled and since then had been agitating outside the campus. The death shocked students and the wider academic community and was squarely blamed on a clash the students, belonging to the the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) had with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the BJP, last year. “V Rohit (around 26) was found hanging in the hostel room. He was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader,” Cyberabad Police Commissioner C V Anand told PTI. “He was from Guntur and was a second year research scholar. He committed suicide in his friend Uma Maheswar’s room. He died roughly around 6 pm,” S. Munna, co-convenor of the ASA in UoH told The News Minute. The entire chain of incidents can be traced back to August 1, when the ABVP disrupted the screening of a documentary on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots at Delhi University, allegedly for being ‘anti-Hindu’. “The ASA held a small protest against the disruption on August 3, following which the university’s ABVP president put up a Facebook post which hurt our sentiments, as he called us goons,” one of the suspended students had earlier told TNM. The ASA students then claim that a small, non-violent confrontation followed, with the ABVP President tendering an apology letter in the presence of security, and everyone is said to have stepped back. “This issue took a different shape by the next day morning i.e on August 8 when the ABVP President along with his brother, who is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), went to a private hospital and started a drama, that he was assaulted by the ASA. During that time, BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao met the Vice-Chancellor along with some of his party cadre and insisted for action against the ‘Dalits’, terming them as ‘anti-national.’ Following this, an enquiry committee was constituted by Professor R.P.Sharma, former Vice-Chancellor under the chairmanship of Professor Alok Pandey,” the ASA alleges in a Facebook post. The minister’s letter to the Irani followed soon after. [Facsimile of the letter.] The Proctorial Board, the disciplinary authority of the institute, conducted a probe into the incident, but the students claim that the findings of the committee and its final decision were contradictory. The five students have been suspended ever since. On Sunday, mild tension prevailed on the campus after scores of students gathered and held demonstration along with Rohit’s body and raised slogans. They demanded that police register a case under SC/ST Atrocity Act against Union minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya while alleging that he had written to HRD ministry seeking action against these research scholars. Later reports also suggest that the police on Monday morning forcibly shifted the body of Rohit from the campus to the Osmania government hospital. Eight students were also said to be arrested. Rohit’s poignant letter was being circulated on the social media, where many have expressed shock at his tragic death and squarely blamed the administration for its handling of the agitation. The following is the text of the Rohit’s letter: “Good morning, I would not be around when you read this letter. Don’t get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt. The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living. I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense. Maybe I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past. I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That’s pathetic. And that’s why I am doing this. People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don’t believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds. If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that. Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive. “From shadows to the stars.” Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing. To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future. For one last time, Jai Bheem I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself. No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act. This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this. Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone.” The story has inputs from The News Minute. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. 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