Rohith
Vemula: Hindutva Politics and Dalit Question Today
Ram
Puniyani
The death of Rohith
Vemula has been projected as suicide by some and murder by others, depending on
their political orientation. Rohith’s being dalit and his participation in
Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) and active contribution to this politically
vibrant dalit group is the major cause of his death. Apart from issues directly
related to dalits, this association did raise the issues related to democratic rights
which are relevant today, like beef eating, opposition to death penalty; as was
given to Mumbai blast accuses Yakub Memon and went on to screen the film Muzzafarnagar Baki hai. This film on
Muzzafarnangar violence (2013) exposes the role of communal forces.
The ABVP, which
nationally has become hyperactive since the Modi Sarkar came to power (May
2014) opposed all these issues as a part of their Hindu nationalist agenda. The
freedom of expression in the academic campuses is very basic in a democratic
society. ABVP, the student’s wing of RSS, could not digest the dalit group taking
up issues related to secularism and democracy. The cause of Vemula’s death
becomes clear in the light of the issues raised by ASA. Rohith’s own understanding
on these issues becomes clear from his face book posts on these issues. For
example let’s see what he wrote on beef issue, “Eating beef and celebrating beef eating is an act of
solidarity with all those who are getting murdered on this reason nationwide.
If we fail to see the fact that the BJP-RSS-VHP scheme of anti-beef campaign is
essentially a tool to persecute Muslim minorities in this country, we would
regret for being the mute spectators of another mass unrest in OUR COUNTRY. The
whole cow myth is less anti-Dalit today and more of anti-Muslim propaganda.”
His understanding of the deeper democratic politics, not
being restricted to so-called dalit issues is more than obvious here. The
issues of marginalized sections- dalits, Adivasis, women and workers and
religious minorities are deeply interwoven with each other. He is very right
that today the issue of beef eating is raised on emotive pitch mainly to
intimidate and target the Muslim minorities, irrespective of the fact that
other sections of society also consume it in good measure. The issue of
Muzzafar nagar film is also related to Muslim minorities at one level. At
deeper level it is a part of communal politics, which wants to polarize the
community along religious lines to impose Hindu nationalism which is against
the concept of rights as such. At yet
another level his participation in the protest to oppose the death penalty to terrorism
accused Yakub Memon; is more from the angle of humanism; opposition to death
penalty as such. There is a global movement to oppose the death penalty
irrespective of the nature of crime and those with deeper humane values worldwide
and in India do support the abolition of death penalty. It was not an act of
supporting terrorism in any way.
Annoyed by these secular democratic Human positions taken by
ASA, ABVP did come to clash with ASA at ideological level. ABVP president
Susheel Kumar complained that he was beaten up. According to the first
committee which investigated this alleged physical assault the complaint was
baseless. With the change of Vice Chancellor the matters started changing. The pressure
of BJP central minister B.Dattatrey backed up by the authority of MHRD minister
Smriti Irani, Rohith and his four friends were penalized; their scholarship was
stopped and they were evicted from hostel.
From his letter to the present Vice Chancellor (VC) asking
for dalit students being given poison and a rope, what comes to surface is that
the VC with his authoritarian anti dalit orientation, deliberately ignored the
letter, leading to this tragedy. The response to Rohith’s death from the ruling
dispensation has been very revealing of the politics which they espouse. Mr.
Dattatreya, in tandem with the local ABVP, termed the ASA activities as being
‘den of casteist, extremists and anti-national politics’. MHRD minister true to
her mindset asserted that it is not a dalit issue while some others doubted
Rohith being a dalit, as his mother was a dalit but father was OBC. This was to
undermine the intense injustices due to which Rohith had to take his life. A small
video, trying to create sensation, is being circulated on the social media.
This video is trying to present Rohith as being a supporter of terrorists’.
In the TV debates the RSS-BJP spokespersons are coming down
heavily on the anti national; casteist politics. To cap it all the timing and
nature of expression from Prime Minster says it all. Mr. Modi who generally is
a very vocal person; he does not keep quiet on issues which expose his agenda
of Hindutva. His earlier being quiet for long on the lynching of Mohammad
Akhlaq is a case in point. In Rohith’s case also after five days of being
quiet, he artificially tried to present a tear jerker, ‘Ma Bharati has lost a
son’, while his party men, cabinet colleague, have been calling him anti
national. This was Modi’s way of putting under the carpet the underlying issue
of anti dalit atrocities, the anti dalit stance of the University administration,
BJP M.P. Mr. Dattatreya, MHRD ministry and ABVP whose joint actions has caused
this death.
In a way the whole issue shows the dilemma of Hidnutva politics.
On one hand it is intensifying the activities aimed at opposing secular values,
intensifying intimidation of dalits-minorities and opposing the voices standing
for democratic values. With Modi sarkar coming to power all the RSS combine
organizations have got a shot in the arms. They are getting a strong political
patronage to oppose other political tendencies. We have earlier seen the role
of Central Government in unsuccessfully banning Ambedkar Periya Study Circle in
IIT Madras. In most of the academic campuses the communal student groups have
become more assertive, knowing full well that the authorities in charge are
either pro Hindutva or they will buckle under the pressure from the top to
implement BJP agenda. Pursuing the campaigns for social justice is being
opposed very strongly. In the same direction their; RSS progeny Samajik
Samrasta Manch; is very active. What is being said is that they don’t believe
in caste, all castes are equal! What it means is that they want to overlook the
caste issue as they want to retain caste hierarchy in newer situation by using
more subtle expressions. Those who want to eradicate a particular disease; first
recognize it so that it can be dealt with, ignoring caste issues or keeping
quiet about it means that they want the present caste equations to continue.
Mr. Prime Minster in his Ambedkar University address, before
moistening his eyes, was lecturing the students that they should emulate Ambedkar
who endured insults and humiliation without complaint. Similar thing was stated
by Mr. Rajnath Singh also. One recalls that Prof. Y. Sudarshan Rao who was
earlier the Chairman of ICHR, appointed by this Government also defended caste hierarchy
by saying that nobody complained against it. So on one side there is an attempt
to appropriate Ambedkar as Hindutva icon, and on the other Hindutva agenda of
preserving caste hierarchy is being rolled out through the concrete
interventions by different affiliates of Hindu nationalism.
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