The Congress and BJP continue to trade barbs and make shocking statements over the Dalit scholar's suicide in Hyderabad. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said that Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide in the Hyderabad Central University, was not a Dalit.

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"The facts have come out in the case and as per as my complete knowledge, that student (Rohith) was not a Dalit. By calling him a Dalit student, this whole case has been raised a communal incident by some people," Swaraj said.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Saturday blamed the protesting students at the Hyderabad Central University for the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula.

"Rohith Vemula was not that weak to commit suicide. Those who are opposing hanging of terrorists, those who say that they would arrange beef party and those who opposed Yakub Memon's hanging, such people are committing suicide. Those who are protesting are responsible for his death," Vijayvargiya said at a function here.

Vijayvargiya, who is not new to controversy, had earlier drawn flak for comparing BJP leader and actor Shatrughan Sinha with a dog walking past a car and thinking that the car was following it. He had also stirred a controversy by saying that Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan lives in India, but his soul is in Pakistan.

On Rohith's birthday anniversary on Saturday, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi sat on fast along with the protesting students at the Hyderabad Central University.

Rohith, a PhD student at the university, committed suicide on 17 January by hanging himself in his room. He was among the six research scholars, suspended by the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year in connection with an alleged attack on an ABVP leader.

(Agency Inputs)