The conversion of the family of Dalit student Rohith Vemula to Buddhism on the 125th birth
anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar has underscored the way in which the faith has been used
as the moral armament of the Dalit movement in India.
According to data released by the central government last month, Buddhism is the fastest
growing religion among the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the country.
University of Hyderabad PhD scholar Rohith committed suicide in January, allegedly after
being targeted by the university, which suspended him from the hostel and stopped his
scholarship as ‘punishment’ for allegedly clashing with leaders of the BJP’s student wing, the
ABVP. His death triggered a firestorm of protests on campus which spread across the
country, and still continue.
In a statement issued in Mumbai after their conversion, Rohith’s brother Raja Vemula said
that Rohith “was extremely keen that our family should follow the path of Buddha”. Rohith
had come to their home in Guntur in November 2015 wearing the white clothes of a follower
of The Buddha, and had spoken “a lot about why Ambedkar had chosen to convert to
Buddhism in 1956”, Raja said in the statement.
Rohith’s mother Radhika and Raja were given deeksha by Buddhist monks at a ceremony at
Mumbai’s Ambedkar Bhawan on April 14
events that followed. This provides some useful perspective. Let me admit that his suicide
note brought tears to my eyes because it was so clearly written by a young man filled with
hopes and dreams, who had become desperate when he saw them die. He should never
have been rusticated for his protest, whether he was Dalit or not. It was an appalling error of
judgment by the officials of Hyderabad Central University and they should have the grace to
resign.
The ministers in the Modi government who interfered in student politics should also have the
grace to resign. Having said this, may I now say that I have been truly disgusted by the
manner in which the usual suspects have tried to make political capital out of so sad a death.
If they had been this concerned about Dalit student rights, why did they not show up in
Hyderabad when the protest began? Rohith Vemula may still have been alive if he knew his
cause was backed by such powerful political leaders.
Having carefully examined what happened after Rohith’s suicide, I find myself unable not to
conclude that what we are seeing is yet another attempt to distract the Prime Minister from
his economic and social agenda. This crusade against Narendra Modi began from almost
the moment that he moved into 7 Race Course Road. He was personally blamed for the
murder of a young computer scientist in Pune. He was blamed immediately after for the
sickening behaviour of Shiv Sena MPs who shoved food into the mouth of a fasting Muslim.
Then began a countrywide campaign to malign his government for targeting Christians.
When the attacks on churches were found to be minor robberies, this quickly ended, but was
instantly followed by an attempt to blame him for the killings of three rationalists. Then after
the ludicrous campaign against beef caused the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq, came
nationwide hysteria and the awardsreturning
movement. And now the Prime Minister is
being personally held responsible for the suicide of Rohith by politicians who know that if
anyone is to blame for Dalits still being an underclass, it is the political party that has ruled
India for most of her years as a modern nation.
students outside RSS head quarters
In two weeks, Rohith will be forgotten and Dalits will still be an underclass because they
have been an underclass for centuries. But in the hysteria whipped up over his death will be
forgotten the very important speech that the Prime Minister gave in Vigyan Bhawan, when
he told young entrepreneurs that his government would help them in every possible way to
start new businesses. In this speech, he admitted that all government needed to do was
facilitate their spirit of enterprise and help finance it. There may be those who believe that
this should not be the job of government but of venture capitalists, but Muhammad Yunus
who started the Grameen Bank, who is here in Davos, praised the ‘Start Up India, Stand Up
India Scheme’.
He said that he believed that the best way to help people lift themselves out of poverty was
to finance their efforts to create small businesses. As someone who has gone on and on in
this column about the need to create jobs, I listened carefully and now concede that perhaps
my emphasis was wrong. Muhammad Yunus said that what very poor people needed most
were banks that were not reluctant to give them loans. Inadvertently this amounted to praise
for the Prime Minister’s emphasis on financial inclusion that has brought more Indians into
the banking system than ever before. These are economic reforms for which he has never
been given credit, because we media types have been so absorbed in saving secularism.
The Prime Minister’s determined efforts to put social programmes like Swachh Bharat and
Beti Bachao at the top of the national agenda are truly commendable. But if noticed at all by
the media, they have evoked mostly sneers and sarcasm. None of our mighty political
pundits has noticed that these programmes touch the core of what is wrong with India’s
model of development. Toilets are more important than temples, improved public hygiene
will end half of India’s diseases and educating little girls will make India a far, far better
place.
So it is my hope that Rohith Vemula’s tragic death does not become another link in the
noose that has been steadily built over the past 18 months to strangle Modi’s efforts to bring
parivartan and vikas. One thing the Prime Minister can and should do is begin to dismantle
the licence raj in education, that gives semiliterate
officials too much power to cause too
much harm in our universities.
anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar has underscored the way in which the faith has been used
as the moral armament of the Dalit movement in India.
According to data released by the central government last month, Buddhism is the fastest
growing religion among the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in the country.
University of Hyderabad PhD scholar Rohith committed suicide in January, allegedly after
being targeted by the university, which suspended him from the hostel and stopped his
scholarship as ‘punishment’ for allegedly clashing with leaders of the BJP’s student wing, the
ABVP. His death triggered a firestorm of protests on campus which spread across the
country, and still continue.
In a statement issued in Mumbai after their conversion, Rohith’s brother Raja Vemula said
that Rohith “was extremely keen that our family should follow the path of Buddha”. Rohith
had come to their home in Guntur in November 2015 wearing the white clothes of a follower
of The Buddha, and had spoken “a lot about why Ambedkar had chosen to convert to
Buddhism in 1956”, Raja said in the statement.
Rohith’s mother Radhika and Raja were given deeksha by Buddhist monks at a ceremony at
Mumbai’s Ambedkar Bhawan on April 14
events that followed. This provides some useful perspective. Let me admit that his suicide
note brought tears to my eyes because it was so clearly written by a young man filled with
hopes and dreams, who had become desperate when he saw them die. He should never
have been rusticated for his protest, whether he was Dalit or not. It was an appalling error of
judgment by the officials of Hyderabad Central University and they should have the grace to
resign.
The ministers in the Modi government who interfered in student politics should also have the
grace to resign. Having said this, may I now say that I have been truly disgusted by the
manner in which the usual suspects have tried to make political capital out of so sad a death.
If they had been this concerned about Dalit student rights, why did they not show up in
Hyderabad when the protest began? Rohith Vemula may still have been alive if he knew his
cause was backed by such powerful political leaders.
Having carefully examined what happened after Rohith’s suicide, I find myself unable not to
conclude that what we are seeing is yet another attempt to distract the Prime Minister from
his economic and social agenda. This crusade against Narendra Modi began from almost
the moment that he moved into 7 Race Course Road. He was personally blamed for the
murder of a young computer scientist in Pune. He was blamed immediately after for the
sickening behaviour of Shiv Sena MPs who shoved food into the mouth of a fasting Muslim.
Then began a countrywide campaign to malign his government for targeting Christians.
When the attacks on churches were found to be minor robberies, this quickly ended, but was
instantly followed by an attempt to blame him for the killings of three rationalists. Then after
the ludicrous campaign against beef caused the murder of Mohammad Akhlaq, came
nationwide hysteria and the awardsreturning
movement. And now the Prime Minister is
being personally held responsible for the suicide of Rohith by politicians who know that if
anyone is to blame for Dalits still being an underclass, it is the political party that has ruled
India for most of her years as a modern nation.
students outside RSS head quarters
In two weeks, Rohith will be forgotten and Dalits will still be an underclass because they
have been an underclass for centuries. But in the hysteria whipped up over his death will be
forgotten the very important speech that the Prime Minister gave in Vigyan Bhawan, when
he told young entrepreneurs that his government would help them in every possible way to
start new businesses. In this speech, he admitted that all government needed to do was
facilitate their spirit of enterprise and help finance it. There may be those who believe that
this should not be the job of government but of venture capitalists, but Muhammad Yunus
who started the Grameen Bank, who is here in Davos, praised the ‘Start Up India, Stand Up
India Scheme’.
He said that he believed that the best way to help people lift themselves out of poverty was
to finance their efforts to create small businesses. As someone who has gone on and on in
this column about the need to create jobs, I listened carefully and now concede that perhaps
my emphasis was wrong. Muhammad Yunus said that what very poor people needed most
were banks that were not reluctant to give them loans. Inadvertently this amounted to praise
for the Prime Minister’s emphasis on financial inclusion that has brought more Indians into
the banking system than ever before. These are economic reforms for which he has never
been given credit, because we media types have been so absorbed in saving secularism.
The Prime Minister’s determined efforts to put social programmes like Swachh Bharat and
Beti Bachao at the top of the national agenda are truly commendable. But if noticed at all by
the media, they have evoked mostly sneers and sarcasm. None of our mighty political
pundits has noticed that these programmes touch the core of what is wrong with India’s
model of development. Toilets are more important than temples, improved public hygiene
will end half of India’s diseases and educating little girls will make India a far, far better
place.
So it is my hope that Rohith Vemula’s tragic death does not become another link in the
noose that has been steadily built over the past 18 months to strangle Modi’s efforts to bring
parivartan and vikas. One thing the Prime Minister can and should do is begin to dismantle
the licence raj in education, that gives semiliterate
officials too much power to cause too
much harm in our universities.
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