#dnaEdit: Dalit scholar's suicide- Educational institutions must deal with caste bias

After futile attempts at justifying its actions in relation to the treatment of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula at the Central University of Hyderabad, the central government is now in damage control mode. The university has revoked the suspension of four other students suspended along with Rohith and announced a Rs8 lakh compensation for Rohith’s mother. On the central government’s part, it has announced a judicial probe into the circumstances that led to Rohith’s suicide and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally broached the subject, admitting that Rohith was “forced to commit suicide”. Unfortunately, Modi’s intervention will not provide the healing touch because of his failure to locate the suicide in the pervasive discrimination against Dalits in academic institutions. Merely, terming Rohith’s death a loss for Mother India reduces the issue to an abstraction, and devalues the uphill struggle being waged by Dalits for dignity and equality. However, none of this appear to have pacified the protesting students, precisely for the reason that it appears to have been dictated by political compulsions. The government’s failure to view the issue from the Dalit perspective was surprising, considering that several Dalit leaders in the BJP had expressed their dismay with the official stance on the issue.

Though the student protests did not escalate across the country as was feared at the start, the government cannot afford to be complacent. The students had demanded the sacking of two union ministers, HRD minister Smriti Irani and labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, and the HCU vice-chancellor P Appa Rao, besides demanding several other institutional checks and balances. While leading politicians from the Congress, CPM, Trinamool Congress, BSP, JD(U) and the Aam Aadmi Party visited the campus to express their solidarity with the students, none of these leaders have mobilised protests for the cause in their respective bastions. While their sincerity is not in question, the primary imperative was to politically embarrass the government rather than help initiate systemic changes to check the discrimination. It is certain that Rohith’s suicide will figure prominently in the forthcoming budget session of Parliament and the demands for the trio’s resignation may gain force there. But unless politicians acknowledge the institutional dimensions of first generation Dalit learners entering the portals of what were once upper caste bastions, little good will come out of the politicking. However, the same cannot be said of the protesting students, who have taken a principled stand to stay away from classes till their demands are met. 

Students come to universities to learn; if they are forced to strike because of the failure of authorities to ensure an enabling environment, it is unfair to blame the students for converting campuses to political war-zones. The judicial probe announced by the Centre is expected to suggest ways to fight discrimination and “reach out to socially, economically and disadvantaged students”. Ironically, HRD minister Irani had condemned attempts to make it a caste issue, while in the same breath announcing that the ABVP leader who complained against Rohith belonged to the OBC community. Clearly, Irani is unaware of the caste dynamics playing out in recent times where Dalit attempts at social mobility are pitting them in conflict with the intermediate castes. Even if the probe were to suggest anti-discriminatory mechanisms, they would just be a re-assertion of earlier attempts by the UGC to end bias. In 2012, the UGC had issued a notification asking campuses to appoint an anti-discrimination officer to examine complaints and prescribe punishments. However, this important order has remained on paper. Such an officer, if present at HCU, would have offered the lifeline that Rohith sorely needed in his fight for a fair hearing.