The Big Story: Caste in stone

A 41-page report looking into the death of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula has concluded that his suicide was entirely his own fault, and was not the result of pressure by the government, Hyderabad University or even an outcome of discrimination, according to The Indian Express. The report prepared by Justice AK Roopanwal goes further, spending some time looking into the question of Vemula's caste and concludes that the scholar's mother faked her Dalit status for the sake of getting benefits.

PhD scholar Rohith Vemula and four other members of the Ambedkar Students' Association had been expelled from the University hostel last year as a fall-out of an altercation with members of the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Vemula's suicide led to widespread agitations by students and particularly Ambedkarites across the country, and turned the spotlight on the pervasive nature of caste discrimination.

Yet efforts were made from the beginning to both ensure that the ABVP and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders associated with this tragedy, including Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya, would not face any legal repercussions for the death of a Dalit scholar, which would come under the Prevention of Atrocities Act. By insisting that Vemula's mother "branded" herself Dalit, this report seems to do exactly that, removing out the caste angle entirely and then declaring that Vemula's death was entirely of his own making.

How the government reacts to this judicial commission, based on the depositions of more than 50 people, could tell us plenty about its approach to caste-based discrimination. The BJP has been attempting over the last few years to bring more Dalits into its fold, an effort that has faced serious challenges since Vemula's death. In the aftermath of that, and an attack on tanners in Una, Gujarat, the BJP has tried to put its Dalit voices forward and insist it has the community's best interests at heart. How it deals with a judicial report that seeks to dismantle the legacy of a young man who, after his death, has become a Dalit icon, will be telling.

The Big Scroll

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Political Pickings

  1. Away from the state border fights is the rather messy BCCI vs Justice Lodha Panel battle that is changing how Indian cricket will be governed. Here's a primer. 
  2. Video footage, photographs and infra-red images of the surgical strikes exist, according to the Times of India's "top government sources", who also said they believe it would be imprudent to release these details. 
  3. The Gujarat government has opposed a Central Bureau of Investigation case into the Una incident where four Dalits were stripped and beaten, saying that the state's investigation was "immaculate". 
  4. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is still unwell, and now Amma is going to get specialists from AIIMS in Delhi to assist the doctors at Apollo in Chennai on her treatment. 

Punditry

  1. Madhav Chandavarkar and Manasa Venkataraman write in Mint of the need to reform defamation laws in India, which are worse than the ones in most other countries. 
  2. The denials might make sense in the short term, but Shashank Joshi points out in the Hindu that not being more candid about the surgical strikes from both sides could lead to more crises. 
  3. The Income Declaration Scheme has garnered only a minuscule amount of black money. The big fish have gotten away, writes Arun Kumar in the Indian Express.
  4. The Atlantic has only endorsed twice before in its century-and-a-half old history. But this year it has come out clearly, against Donald Trump. 

Don't Miss

Manob Chowdhury writes about a Hazaribagh that is still in a state of shock after four people were killed by police firing at a protest over land acquisition.

“The whole area has been turned into a military camp,” said Santosh Rai, whose 18-year-old nephew Abhishek Rai was among those who died. “We managed to get my nephew’s body back with great difficulty by 4 pm on Saturday," said Rai. "At the autopsy center, the policemen present were saying, 'Learn your lessons, let the mining work go on, or more bodies will fall.' A lot of people had gathered outside, we were worried how we will take the body back, if the police starts firing again.”