Rohith Vemula’s mother Radhika Vemula “branded” herself as a Dalit so that she can avail the benefits of reservation, expelling him from the hostel was the “most reasonable” decision the university could have taken; personal frustration, not discrimination, drove the 26-year-old PhD scholar to suicide; Union Ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani were only discharging their duties and there was no pressure on the Hyderabad Central University authorities.
These are the salient conclusions of the enquiry conducted by the Justice (retd.) A. K. Roopanwal Commission, set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to probe the suicide case of Hyderabad Central University PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, reported The Indian Express.
The 41-page long report by Roopanwal, which is mainly based on the deposition of over 50 people, a majority of whom were university teachers, officers and staff members, claims that Radhika Vemula, mother of Rohith Vemula, claimed to be Mala (a scheduled casted community) to support the caste certificate issued to her son. V Radhika managed to get a caste certificate from the then corporator Uppalapati Danmma, who lived with Radhika for one and a half years, said the report.
