External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday that Rohith Vemula, the research scholar from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) who committed suicide, was not a Dalit.
"According to my complete knowledge, that student [Rohith] was not a Dalit," she told ANI before adding that all the allegations that were being traded so far, were "completely baseless."
Tathya ye hai ki ye puri ki puri batcheet jo ki gayi ya aarop lagaye gaye, wo aarop puri tarah niradhar hain: Sushma Swaraj on #RohithVemula
— ANI (@ANI_news) January 30, 2016She made the statement even as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi participated in a candlelight vigil at the university campus late on Friday night followed by a one-day fast on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the BJP slammed Rahul Gandhi's second visit to the campus, charging him and the Congress with politicising the issue and dubbing the visit as "classic politics of vulturisation".
"Rahul Gandhi and Congress are so politically bankrupt and unemployed that he has to politicise tragic death of a student repeatedly. His desperate attempt to earn some petty political expediency, has brought him back to HCU campus. This is classic politics of vulturisation," Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said.
The Congress has been demanding the sacking of HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and also removal of Vice Chancellor Appa Rao in the wake of the suicide by the research scholar.
Inputs from PTI