Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Friday, April 17, constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee to draft recommendations for the proposed Rohith Vemula legislation aimed at preventing identity-based discrimination in higher educational institutions.
The panel to be headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, includes ministers D Sridhar Babu, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar and C Damodar Rajanarasimha.
“Government hereby constitute a Cabinet Sub-Committee to study and make recommendations/suggestions for making suitable legislation on the Rohith Vemula Telangana (Prevention of Identity Based Discrimination in Higher Education) Bill, 2026,” a Government Order (GO) said.
The Special Chief Secretary to Government (Scheduled Caste Development Department) will be the Convenor of the Sub- Committee, it said.
The Sub-Committee should submit its recommendations at the earliest, the order said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had written to CM A Revanth Reddy last year to enact the ‘Rohith Vemula Act’ to end discrimination in educational institutions.
Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student, allegedly died by suicide at the University of Hyderabad due to caste-based discrimination in 2016.
Vemula’s death had snowballed into a political controversy with Rahul Gandhi taking on the central government in Parliament and the then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani slamming alleged attempts to project it as a caste battle.
Rohith, his suicide
Rohith Vemula was a research scholar pursuing his Doctorate in Philosophy at the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), also known as the University of Hyderabad (UoH) presently.
He died by suicide on January 17, 2016, following alleged caste-based discrimination and suspension, sparking nationwide protests. His death fueled debates on institutional failure, with his suicide note stating, “I am happy dead than being alive,” and that his “birth was a fatal accident.”
Though he didn’t name any person responsible for his death apart from his identity (Dalit), his suicide letter made him immortal, so much that a section of students on campus also vandalised the bust-size statue installed at HCU’s north shop-com in his memory.
The open area in front of the shopping complex was transformed into a ‘Veliwada,’ translated into English as a shelter for those boycotted by the caste Hindus.
He, along with his some others were expelled from their hostels for holding a Namazi Janaza (final procession) of Yakub Memon, after he was hanged till death in connection with the 1993 Mumbai Blasts Case.
Hounded for his views
That drew the ire of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which had branded him as an anti-national. Letters were written to the union ministers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who had also written to the then Vice-Chancellor Podile Appa Rao, seeking stern action against the ‘anti-nationals.’
The media reported at the time, that he was hounded by ABVP activists headed by the president of the saffron student group Susheel Kumar on HCU campus. There were attacks and counter-attacks, that led to the suspension of Rohith and his comrades from the Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) from entering their hostels and the mess. They were allowed to attend their classes though.
What transpired in the weeks after the protest was launched at the shop com, the space which these students had made their home, will never be known.
The reality, changed narrative
In his suicide letter, Rohith had stated that all the organisations were self-serving. One paragraph in his suicide letter was stroked-off. It is still not known whether he did that, or someone else did it.
He was in the ASA before taking the extreme step, supported by the Students Federation of India (SFI).
Just weeks after his suicide, the narrative had changed. The revenue officials from Andhra Pradesh, his native state, had ascertained that Rohith belonged to the Vaddera community (BC), as his father belonged to that caste. His mother belonged to the SC Mala community though.
It came to light in the next few days that his father had alienated his mother, and she was solely raising him, despite facing unseen financial difficulties.
Rohith didn’t need reservation
Not may not know that Rohith had also worked as a newspaper delivery agent during his early student years. He had first joined the ABVP when he entered HCU campus, but had left the organisation shortly. Though he was under the SC category in the university, he had secured an admission into the university on merit even in the open quota.
Pressure from the top brass
The letters written by the then Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP MLC N Ramchander Rao, and the then HRD Minister Smriti Irani were reported as being the pressure imposed on the university administration to take the ‘anti-national elements’ under task.
However, till date, nobody has been able to answer correctly why a young genius died of suicide, when the entire student community was behind him and his comrades, even when he was alive.
Compensation for a genius lost
The fall-out of Rohith’s death was that his brother was able to get a government job in Telangana after the formation of Congress government in Telangana. His mother never got the ticket to contest on Congress’ ticket, and is still fighting for her ‘justice’. The one who allegedly led the ABVP workers to hound him is presently serving as a professor in a university in the north-east. The self-serving organisations (left, right or Centre), have lost their credibility for good.
Bhatti Vikramarka, a HCU alumnus
Bhatti Vikramarka, the chairperson of the cabinet sub-committee is also an alumnus of HCU, which gives hope for some reform in the universities, especially the HCU, where hundreds of research scholars were allegedly suspended for taking part in the Rohith Vemula movement.
While many were reinstated later, there are also those who followed Rohith’s path, the path of no return.
The Karnataka Cabinet on April 16 approved the Karnataka Rohith Vemula (Prevention of Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Bill.
(With inputs from PTI)
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