Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot said on Monday the Scheduled Caste certificate of Rohit Vemula, the Ph.D scholar from the University of Hyderabad, was a matter of investigation.
Vemula committed suicide earlier this year following disciplinary action against him by the University. Mr. Gehlot told The Hindu in an interview that Vemula’s mother Radhika had in a letter seeking the younger brother’s birth certificate on July 2, 2014, mentioned him as an OBC.
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“Let me reiterate that suicide of a person of any caste is tragic. Our government took it seriously. But they [Opposition] tried to fuel separatism calling it a Dalit issue. His mother’s 1981-85 educational record in Rajmohalla Vidyalaya, Guntur, shows she was an OBC of Vaddera caste,” he said.
“On July 2, 2014, she, in a letter requesting for Rohit’s younger brother’s birth certificate said he was OBC. Why? How was Rohit Scheduled Caste then?” Claiming that Vemula had sympathies for terror convict Yakub Memon, who was executed, Mr. Gehlot said such a person could not be a true follower of B.R. Ambedkar.
“On the JNU incident there is no need to say much... They were also supporting anti-national activities and Rohit was also like that. See his past,” he said.
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Asked whether he saw Vemula as an Ambedkarite, Mr. Gehlot said: “Look at their actions. Ambedkarites can never do this. Ambedkar was a reconciler, a believer in equality and a lover of the country. Ambedkar’s thought was not like their activities...” He accused Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi of politicising the issue, though other parties had not played such politics when 11 suicides had taken place earlier in Hyderabad or atrocities against Dalits were reported in Haryana under the Congress.
(For full interview visit: http://bit.ly/Gehlot)