Last January, PhD student Rohith Vemula killed himself at the University of Hyderabad after alleged caste-based discrimination, triggering protests across India.
Rohith’s mother Radhika has been fighting for justice for her son, travelling to different parts of the country to address students and mobilise support to punish the perpetrators and enact a non-discrimination “Rohith” act.
But focus has remained on Rohith’s caste status as government reports have submitted contradictory findings. HT’s Sudipto Mondal pieces together the family’s ordeal and resistance over the past year:
Guntur June 10, 11am
Rohith Vemula’s paternal grandfather Venkateshwarulu Vemula had just arrived as promised. He had come to submit an affidavit to the Guntur collector, saying his son and Rohith Vemula’s father Mani Kumar had abandoned his wife and children before finally being separated legally from them. He had come to declare that the children belonged to the mother, Radhika Vemula.
The statement had the potential to decide a case that had not moved forward since Rohith’s suicide six months earlier. The police had not taken action against BJP leaders accused under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for harassing Rohith. Instead, an inquiry was launched to find out whether Rohith was from the Mala Scheduled Caste like his mother Radhika or OBC like his father Mani Kumar. If it could be proved that he was not Dalit or SC, the cases would fall.
Mani Kumar was the trump card. “He has tried to kill me many times…just for alcohol,” the panicky Venkateshwarulu said. “My son did not do anything for his children. Their mother Radhika brought them up. If she is Mala, then they are Mala.”
When we got to the collector’s office, nobody was willing to receive the affidavit. After hours of nagging and praying and several rounds of the building, we got a stamp on the affidavit but no official was willing to sign it.
Rohith’s closest friend Syed Riyaz, who is always by the family’s side, was missing throughout. “I was preventing Mani Kumar from coming in,” Riyaz said when we met later that night.
Mani Kumar had followed his father to Guntur but agreed not to create a scene if Riyaz bought him his rum and cigarettes and listened to his stories all day.
“Whenever he gets drunk, he keeps repeating that his sons are not Mala. He loves to say, ‘I am Vaddera and my sons are Vaddera.’ But today, he told some amazing new stories,” Riyaz said.
“He was talking about the time he was hugged on stage by a national-level BJP leader at a rally in Vijayawada; the time when some powerful OBC leaders from the TDP had taken selfies with him; the time a senior female BJP leader from Tirupathi had visited him.”
“… the value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number.To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of stardust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living.” – Vemula’s suicide note
I asked Riyaz if he knew Mani Kumar had tried to kill his father for alcohol, to which Riyaz suddenly said, “Do you know that Rohith almost killed Mani Kumar once?” Rohith, who was in his final year BSc then, had received four stitches on his arm. Mani Kumar got eight stitches on his head.
But what was the fight about? “Ask Raja or Radhika aunty,” Riyaz said.
Hyderabad, November 2, midnight
“Anna, Radhikamma is missing!” It was one of the Ambedkar Students Association leaders of the University of Hyderabad on the line.
After a frantic hour, Raja called at 1am but Radhika snatched the phone, “Nana (Son), Thank you for everything. We don’t want anything from anybody anymore. We don’t want to talk to anybody…” She was sobbing.
Radhika, Raja and his sister Nileema had spent the whole day at the Guntur joint collector’s (JC) office, getting grilled by a dozen revenue department officials over Rohith Vemula’s caste.
“We were not offered a chair and stood for five hours. By the end, mother was shivering”.
One of the officers, Raja said, asked Radhika why she left her husband when he was quite wealthy. When Radhika explained that he was abusive and had thrown her and the children out of the house after discovering that she was a Mala (SC), the officer allegedly said, “We have information that you had some other sources of income.”
Raja said, “The officer said ‘other sources’ in such a way that it sounded like he was questioning my mother’s character. We immediately knew that they had been speaking to Mani Kumar a lot. Mani Kumar will tell anybody that my mother brought us up through sex work.”
“Do you know Mani tried to sell my mother to one of those men who come to the red light area?” That was the reason Rohith almost killed Mani? “Yes.”
Radhika kept it really short when we spoke a few days later over the phone. “They are going to give Rohith Mani Kumar’s caste,” she said. The experience at the JC’s office had broken her resolve.
Hyderabad November 22, 6am
“Anna, did you see the news?” It was the ASA leader again. Radhika Vemula had participated in a massive protest in Delhi to show solidarity with Fatima Nafeesa, the distraught mother of Najeeb who disappeared from Jawaharlal Nehru University. The Delhi media had covered the story of the two grieving mothers enthusiastically.
When I called her, Radhika said, “I am not giving up. I will go on till the BJP is in power.”
Hyderabad January 14, 8am
The phone showed several missed calls from Radhika Vemula. She picks up with the first ring. “Nana, have you read the news? The Andhra government has sent a report to Delhi saying Rohith was OBC like Mani Kumar,” she said without sounding too disturbed. She said she was expecting this and was well prepared to fight back.
“So, I have called all the people who I visited in the last one year to come to the university on January 17. The students are also supporting me. I will lead the protest.”
She had a request, “Nana, I will be addressing the media. Will you tell your reporter friends to attend?”
(Sudipto Mondal is writing a book on Rohith Vemula)
Source: HindustanTimes