Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday, April 18, assured that his government will enact the Rohith Act, a proposed legislation to prevent caste discrimination in higher educational institutions.
The assurance came in response to a letter from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, dated April 16, urging the state government to pass the law. In a post on social media platform X, Siddaramaiah wrote, “Our government stands firm in its resolve to enact the Rohith Vemula Act in Karnataka — to ensure no student faces discrimination based on caste, class, or religion. We will bring this legislation at the earliest to honour the dreams of Rohith, Payal, Darshan, and countless others who deserved dignity, not exclusion.”
Rahul Gandhi, in his letter addressed to the Chief Minister, invoked the legacy of Dr BR Ambedkar to highlight the persistence of caste-based discrimination in education. Citing Ambedkar’s personal experience of being forced to sit in a corner of his classroom due to his caste, Rahul Gandhi called it “shameful” and urged the government to take legislative action to prevent similar humiliation for today’s students.
“It is a shame that even today millions of students from Dalit, Adivasi, and OBC communities have to face such brutal discrimination in our educational system,” Rahul Gandhi wrote.
The proposed Rohith Vemula Act is named in memory of Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad, whose death by suicide on January 17, 2016, after facing institutional ostracisation, sparked a nationwide movement against caste discrimination in higher education.
Vemula’s death was widely condemned by students and activists as an “institutional murder.” In his suicide note, which is etched in people’s memories for its powerful words, Rohith wrote, “My birth is my fatal accident.” He spoke of star dust and Carl Sagan, and wrote, “The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility.”
