External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has said that Rohith Vemula, who recently committed suicide in the University of Hyderabad, was not a Dalit.
“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 was quoted by ANI as saying.
The 26-year-old scholar committed suicide early last week, a fortnight after he and four other researchers were expelled from the university hostel in connection with an alleged case of assault.
Terming the expulsion of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula from Hyderabad University hostel as a “small incident”, BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said he doubts whether this alone led to suicide by the “courageous youth”.
“The suicide of Vemula is unfortunate. He was a courageous youth who had a zeal to swim against the tide. Though a probe is on in his death, I don’t believe he committed suicide just because of a small incident of his expulsion from the hostel,” the BJP general secretary said on Saturday.
“I don’t think he took the extreme step because he was perturbed over his expulsion,” he told reporters here.
“I think those people who are responsible for his suicide are the ones who are agitating to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. Once the probe is complete, these people would get exposed,” Vijayvargiya maintained.
{{/usCountry}}“I think those people who are responsible for his suicide are the ones who are agitating to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. Once the probe is complete, these people would get exposed,” Vijayvargiya maintained.
{{/usCountry}}Asked about Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi taking part in the agitation over Rohith’s death, Vijayvargiya said, “Politics should not be done on the issue. Our political rivals are unable to digest that under Modi’s leadership, the country’s stature is rising in the world and therefore they are indulging in such acts.”
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