Niru

The latest ‘Rohith Vemula type case’ from Kerala is falling apart. Earlier this month, Nithin Raj, a 22-yr-old Dalit student in a Dental college of Kerala died by suicide. He had taken loan from those apps promising instant loans and was being harassed by agents for repayment. But as always, ‘activists’ were not satisfied that this can be reason for taking one’s own life – when countless such incidents exist – and claimed he was discriminated by an ‘upper caste’ professor. Rohit Vemula’s mother also joined the debate and claimed this to be another death due to caste atrocities on campuses. Kerala’s communist CM blasted BJP – while the death happened in a state ruled by him – for not implementing UGC guidelines and for stalling Congress’ Rohith Vemula Act. The professor accused of harassing students based on their castes was named Dr M.K. Ram, and communists types came up with comments like Rama and Shambuka etc. and upper castes were abused. Apart from harassment and abetment of suicide, SC/ST act was also involved against Dr M.K. Ram. A twist came when the professor claimed that he himself was from an SC caste of Karnataka, so SC/ST act can’t be applied against him. Now the prosecution has been submitted documents in court to prove that the accused professor is not a Dalit. The documents submitted prove that he belongs to a caste that has been categorized under OBC, and not SC. A peedit-soshit nonetheless, like Rohith Vemula, who was technically an OBC, but everyone insists that he should be identified as an SC because his mother raised him as a Dalit. Whether or not this professor indeed ‘discriminated’ based on caste isn’t known, but what is now pretty clear that the accused is not from general caste or unreserved castes, yet all the abuses landed up on the doorstep of ‘upper caste’. This also shows how UGC guideline – which Kerala CM so strongly thought could be of any help – would have been a farce as OBCs too were recognized as ‘oppressed’, apart from how caste from one state could claim different status in another state, all because of some bureaucratic categorization rather than some appendix or table in Manusmriti.