On Rohith Vemula Case, Nirmala Sitharaman Takes ‘Mohabbat Ki Dukaan’ Jibe At Congress

A day after the Telangana police submitted its closure report on Rohith Vemula’s death case, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attacked the Congress party for politicising the issue, saying that the sensitive case should never have been infused with with a political narrative.

Nirmala Sitharaman said that the Rohith Vemula death case could have been handled by the university with utmost sensitivity, but was dragged across the nation with a narrative being built against the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The finance minister said, “I will use Rohith Vemula as an example to tell you how an unfortunate incident, without allowing the university to handle it with the utmost sensitivity, was dragged across the streets all over the country and a narrative was built against the government… Today those people who made a joke out of this unfortunate incident and dragged the family to the streets should apologise to the entire country for politicising this matter.”

Sitharaman further recalled when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took up the issue of Vemula’s suicide in the Parliament, accusing the central government and former Union HRD minister Smriti Irani of indulging caste-based politics.

“Today when the facts have come out, we know the pressure and the toxic involvement on the narrative that was set up, did not come from the government, but from vested interest groups… The perpetrator of ‘Mohabbat ki dukaan’ took this issue to the Parliament,” Sitharaman said.

The BJP MP said, “A problem which could have been well handled and resolved amicably in the university was dragged to the streets of the country and allegations were levied against the Education Minister and the Government at that point because it happened to be a Central University.”

The Telangana police on Friday filed a closure report on the death of Rohith Vemula, a University of Hyderabad student who died by suicide in 2016. In the report, the police said that Vemula was not a member of the Scheduled Castes (SC), and was afraid that his real identity would be revealed.

The report also absolved the prime accused in the case of the charges of abetment to suicide.

Sitharaman said in her statement, “Intolerance, political interference and hate do not lie in the government but in the vested interest groups who don’t lose an opportunity to bring this toxin into centres of higher education… Rohith Vemula had his dignity to be respected.”