For anyone with a conscience, the death of Rohith Vemula, the 26-year-old Dalit PhD scholar, on the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) campus, is a murder most foul, being passed off as suicide through a conspiracy of upper castes, who are determined to crush the lower castes. They might assume they are safe, since Vemula left a “suicide note.” But the entire chain of power involved in the humiliation, isolation and eventual provocation to “suicide” of Vemula must be held accountable for their role in the conspiracy. Vemula was punished for the alleged “crime” of assaulting a local Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader, which official reports have specifically disproved. Bandaru Dattatreya, the minister of state for labour and employment in the Narendra Modi government, wrote to Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, claiming that the HCU was “a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics” and demanded action. Ms Irani’s office wrote four letters to the vice chancellor, pressurising him to take action against Vemula. The latter was one of many Dalit scholars on whom the casteist administration had perpetrated atrocities: He had been denied his fellowship, and banned from the hostel and almost all public places on campus.

A protest rally against the death of Dalit student Rohit Vemula