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Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), students’ organisation from University of Hyderabad on Tuesday, July 8, issued a statement condemning the appointment of N Ramchander Rao as the Telangana state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ramchander was named as an accused in the suicide of University of Hyderabad (UoH) research scholar Rohith Vemula in 2016.
ASA’s statement comes two days after N Ramchander, a former MLC, officially took oath as the BJP chief on Sunday, July 6. Dubbing the elevation “shameful” and “predictable”, ASA stated that “despite clear evidence that Rohith and the other four Dalit scholars had not physically assaulted (then ABVP general secretary) Susheel Kumar, Rao staged a dharna in the university and used his political clout to pressure the University of Hyderabad administration into suspending them.”
“This act of targeted harassment paved the way for Rohith's tragic and deliberate institutional murder,” the statement further read.
The ASA termed the elevation “abhorrent and emblematic of the party's long-standing tradition of valorising those responsible for caste atrocities.”
“This elevation is not an exception, but a reaffirmation of the BJP's deep-seated disdain for Dalit lives,” it added.
The chain of events ASA refers to began in early 2016, when then ABVP general secretary Susheel Kumar alleged that a group of ASA members, including Rohith, had “roughed him up.” Though an inquiry later found no evidence to support the claim, the incident triggered swift political movement. BJP leaders — then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya and MLC Ramchander Rao — wrote letters pressuring the UoH administration to take action against the ASA students.
The administration then suspended Rohith and four other ASA members. Days later, Rohith died by suicide, leaving behind a letter that would spark nationwide protests and raise urgent questions about caste discrimination on Indian campuses.
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