The one-man Commission set up to investigate the death of University of Hyderabad (UoH) scholar Rohith Vemula has stated that Rohith’s mother, Radhika, "branded" herself a Dalit to avail the benefits of reservation.
According to reports, it also blames Rohith for his own suicide and states that union ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani were only discharging their duties.
Ritika Chopra of the The Indian Express aptly terming it a "whitewash", reports:
Roopanwal questioned Rohith’s caste in detail — four of the 12 pages on the final findings are devoted to this. Since Vemula was raised by his mother, V Radhika, the report has tried to establish whether she belonged to the Mala (read SC) community...According to Roopanwal, Radhika claimed to be Mala to support the caste certificate issued to her son. Her claim that her foster parents told her that her biological parents were SC was “improbable and unbelievable,” said the commission.
Following a huge political storm, the Roopanwal Commission had been formed by the HRD Ministry to look into the circumstances leading to the death of Vemula.
UoH scholar Vemula had committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of a hostel room in the university on January 17, 2016.
The IE report also quotes the probe report as saying:
“His suicide note is on the record which shows that Rohith Vemula had his own problems and not happy with the worldly affairs. He was feeling frustrated for reasons best known to him…He did not blame anybody for his suicide. If he would have been angry with the decision of the university certainly either he would have written in the specific words or would have indicated in this regard. But he did not do the same. It shows that the circumstances prevailing in the university at that time were not the reasons for committing suicide. The whole reading of the letter shows that he was not feeling well in this world and under frustration ended his life.”
The findings also reportedly call the decision by the proctoral committee of the university to suspend Vemula and four other students “most reasonable”.
Here are the top highlights of the report, based on the IE report
1. Radhika Vemula branded herself as a Dalit
2. Rohith was not a Dalit
3. Rohith faced no discrimination
4. Rohith’s suicide was not related to his expulsion
5. Rohith’s expulsion from the hostel was ‘most reasonable’
6. Personal frustration, not discrimination drove him to suicide
7. MLC Ramachandra Rao, Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani were only discharging their duties
8. University’s equal opportunity cell headed by the anti-discrimination officer is not functional and that the grievance redressal committee headed by the ombudsman should be made more effective