Coaching factories of Kota and 19 suicides in one year - IBN Live

Coaching factories of Kota and 19 suicides in one year

Posted on: 07:21 PM IST Jan 20, 2016 | Updated on: 10:16 pm,Jan 20,2016 IST

Kota: Even after 19 students allegedly committed suicide in Kota in a year, the city's Rs 2000 crore coaching industry continues to pride itself only in its USP of high success rates at the engineering and medical entrance exams. With the coaching institutes refusing to acknowledge the trouble brewing in the city’s underbelly, ambitious parents and students who sometimes give in to the pressure continue to flock to the Kota.

Every morning students queue up for personal consultation with teachers at Kota’s biggest coaching institutes. The pressure is high for students who are in the city from various parts of the country to crack exams like the IIT JEE which has a ratio of around 12 lakh aspirants for 10,000 seats.

The road to success goes through weekly tests that lead to batch segregation. It's a 12 hour day, rare weekly off and almost zero extracurricular activities for the students which all adds to that less than average living conditions. Such issues led Akshunn to return home to Jodhpur.

Akshunn Bishnoi, a former coaching student, said, "There is batch segregation. If you don’t maintain your score teachers humiliate you. Some can take it and some cannot. I decided I am better off preparing at home."

But even as the suicide rate grows along with the success rate in the coaching hub, the institutes continue to turn a blind eye to growing stress levels among students. Most institutes do not want to acknowledge that there is a problem, let alone address it.

Rajesh Maheshwari, director of Allen Career Academy, said, "We have given some days off but fun and games are not what students come here for. They come here to study for these competitive exams and that is what we are known for."

From mandatory weekly days off, giving an easy exit plan, re-assessing batch segregation based on scores, screening tests for admissions to avoiding ads with posters of students, Kota’s coaching factories seem reluctant to change their ways.

While the district administration is hopeful it’ll drive the point of seriousness of growing student suicides home with the institutes, with the interests of an industry that has grown on its own at stake, it also believes there is only so much it can do.

Kota District Magistrate Ravi Kumar Surpur said that the students are being trained for gaining entry into medical and engineering institutions where the competition is high and so in the name of directives the government cannot afford to altogether dilute the process.

Unless the coaching institutes as well as parents look at the plight of the students with sensitivity, checking stress levels, depression and suicides will remain a challenge, say experts.

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Rohith Vemula's suicide: Students burn Smriti Irani's effigy; - Zee News

Rohith Vemula's suicide: Students burn Smriti Irani's effigy; demand Rs 5 crore compensation, job for scholar's kin

Last Updated: Thursday, January 21, 2016 - 00:36

Zee Media Bureau

Hyderabad: Despite Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani's attempt to defend the Centre over the suicide of a Dalit scholar, fierce protests continued on Wednesday by the students at the Hyderabad University as they even took to burning her effigy.

Chanting slogans against the Centre and Irani, Hyderabad University students have raised a 6-point demand seeking justice for Rohith Vemula.

Demand #1 - Compensation of Rs 5 crore to Rohith Vemula's family

Demand #2 - Job to Rohith Vemula's kin in the university

Demand #3 - Sack Vice-Chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile

Demand #4 - Drop false cases against Dalit students of the university

Demand #5 - Revoke suspension of other scholars

Demand #6 - Punish the culprits behind Rohith Vemula's death

Hyderabad suicide shows why Smriti Irani is India's Joan of Farce: She can only war, not peace - First Post

Hyderabad suicide shows why Smriti Irani is India's Joan of Farce: She can only war, not peace

by Sandipan Sharma  Jan 21, 2016 16:29 IST

When a fire is burning in the backyard, a wise, patient head of the family is expected to bring down the temperature by pouring cold water over it.

But, trust Smriti Irani to first pour gallons of ghee over it and then light a matchstick.

Smriti Irani in a file photo. PTI

On Wednesday, when it seemed the fire that has engulfed the Hyderabad University campus was stabilising, if not abating, in came the HRD Minister firing on all cylinders against the "malicious attempt" to turn it into a caste issue.

The result: Now even the Dalit professors are enraged. To express solidarity with the students and to protest Irani's "fabricated" statement, ten of them have quit their administrative positions.

In an emotionally charged atmosphere, Irani should have ideally made an attempt to reach out to the students, listen to them patiently, assuage their feelings and address their concerns. At the very least, she could have made an attempt to visit the university, just as she rushes to Amethi at the slightest provocation, instead of fiddling with facts in her Delhi AC room while the campus was burning.

Now, Irani has turned it into an Us vs Them battle, not realising that in this war there is no Them for a minister-in-charge of the country's education system. It is all her parivar, even if not all of it is saffron.

The fire that she has stoked in Hyderabad with her attempt to blame the opposition for what is essentially a crisis triggered by her own ministry and BJP stooges on the campus, is classic Smriti Irani.

Picking up fights in public, getting into ego clashes and rushing headlong into battles where even angels fear to tread has been a hallmark of her politics. Flared nostrils, furrowed brow, flaming eyes and frequent calls to arms have become trademarks of her public persona. Fight, even when flight is the better option, has become her mechanical response to every crisis, making her India's Joan of Farce meets Don Corleone.

No fight is too low for the country's HRD minister, she competes in all categories, punches both above and below her weight.

Just a few days ago, when Economic Times wrote about the sifarish raj in Kendriya Vidyalayas under her ministry, an indignant Irani rushed to Twitter to pick up a catfight with the reporter. In her place, any other minister would have either ignored the report or asked a junior mandarin to write to the editor. But, perhaps, such restraint and discretion would have been an affront to the bellicose bahu image of the minister.

Before this, Irani took on renowned nuclear scientist and IIT Mumbai chairperson Anil Kakodkar, forcing him to quit from the board of directors of the premier institutions. Kakodkar's resignation came two months after IIT Delhi director R Shevgaonkar had stepped down from his post in December 2014 because of reported differences between him and the ministry over certain issues.

And, then, there is the mother of all battles she had picked up with her current mentor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when, she had sat on a dharna demanding the Gujarat chief minister's resignation in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots.

Chronicling her descent from Queen-bee to Queen-been, in a cover story in May, the Outlook magazine had pointed out that Irani had become a liability for the party and may be soon cut down to size.

'The basic problem, say sources in the BJP, is this. She has overplayed her hand in trying to position herself as someone who is close to and favoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Simultaneou­sly, she has also thrown her weight around in the party, with even colleagues in the gover­nment, as also bureaucrats. Com­plaints of rudeness, arrogance and temper have been carried to Shah, every inch Modi’s man,' the magazine wrote in a damning indictment of her style, temper and temperament.

While legends of controversies and catfights abound, there isn't much on the credit side in the minister's ledger book. Except for ramming through decisions like making Sanskrit compulsory in schools, withdrawing the non-Net fellowship to research scholars, the HRD ministry can't claim a single decision that has contributed to the betterment of the education system. She has, instead, been slammed for packing the varsities with pliant VCs — like the one in Hyderabad — and giving weightage to Hindutva crusaders like Dinanath Batra over academicians and scholars of repute.

In a brutal criticism of her ministry, SN Balagangadhara and Jakob De Roover, two professors teaching in Ghent University, Belgium, had recently called her a terrible choice for the ministry. "When you have a third-rate Sanskrit pundit as your advisor on higher education policy, why would you need to study the sociology, history, philosophy and psychology of science to find out the problems involved in generating and encouraging scientific creativity? Your Sanskrit pundit will hunt out the relevant Vedic shlokas, whereas Europeans and Americans can do empirical research into science," the scholars had argued, lamenting that her tenure was a tragedy of gigantic proportions.

Tomes can fill up legends of Irani's fall. Even encyclopedias will be too small for accommodating the words of her critics. Seeing her stumble from one controversy to another, one flame to another flagration, many like Madhu Kishwar would ask, didn't we tell you so?

"Here is someone who is not just poorly educated and mal-educated – she is just Class 12th pass –  lied in her affidavit about her qualifications. Nor does she have the learning of a lived experience. Look at the trajectory of this woman – at 18, she leaves home for the glamour industry, to become a fashion model, a beauty queen, then gets into saas-bahu serials, which, even by the standards of the entertainment industry, is the lowest genre. It is brainless. She could not even qualify to head the National School of Drama," Kishwar had ranted in her interview with Scroll.in.

The tragic truth is, Irani has proved her critics right. Instead of obliterating the image skeptics had of her, she has converted every opportunity into a crisis, reinforcing the persona of an inexperienced, haughty and pugnacious politician who can't digest the success handed to her on a platter.

Irani has several steller qualities. She is fiery, confident and brave. Pitting her against political rivals like Rahul Gandhi, utilising her oratorical skills and experience of the theatre in parliament and TV studios could have turned her into an asset for the BJP.

Alas, they chose her for a job that requires erudition, patience, humility and the prescience to know that for a real guru, vasudhaiva (the earth) is a kutumbakam (family), not a perennial battleground.

'Caste discrimination continues to exist in IIT-Bombay' - Mid Day

'Caste discrimination continues to exist in IIT-Bombay'

By Pallavi Smart |Posted 21-Jan-2016

Even as campuses across the country are seized with outrage over the suicide of Dalit student Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University, the family of IIT-Bombay student Aniket Ambhore, who fell to his death from a hostel terrace, is still waiting for closure 15 months after his death.

Also read: IIT-Bombay student who fell from 6th floor was struggling with failing grades, say institute's officials

Aniket’s parents Sunita and Sanjay are frustrated by the apathy of authorities. Pics/Suresh KK

Aniket’s parents and friends told mid-day on Wednesday that the Dalit student was subjected to continuous taunts over his caste in the months leading up to his death. Aniket was found dead below the six-storey hostel building on September 4, 2014. Even today, neither the police nor the institute, which set up a probe into the incident, has told the family the reason behind Aniket’s death.

Aniket Ambhore fell to his death from a hostel terrace

The family told mid-day the slurs had heightened just before his death, with even a professor in his remedial class and the head of a department being among those who berated him as being dull because he was a Dalit. But the institute, they alleged, has till now not submitted a report by an enquiry committee that was set up to look into the circumstances of Aniket’s death.

Aniket’s parents at their Prabhadevi home

Ambhore’s mother Sunita told mid-day on Wednesday that she could understand what must have forced the 22-year-old Hyderabad boy to take the extreme step.

“Aniket did not leave any note for us,” Sunita told mid-day. “But when I read Rohith’s note I could understand what my son must have been feeling. Only after Aniket’s death did we find some lines scribbled in his books about how empty and lonely he was feeling.”

The Ambhores said Aniket grew up not being aware of caste discrimination and did not know how to handle it when he faced it on campus. He initially took it as a consequence of his poor grades. Ambhore’s father Sanjay said he had turned to spiritual books towards the end of his term at IIT, though the entire family was atheist.

“There was no pressure on him from us,” Sanjay, who works with a nationalised bank, told mid-day. “We were willing to withdraw his admission if it was getting too difficult for him. We even had this discussion with his department head after he failed in some subjects. But everybody said he would catch up. But before his death, he had told us how a professor had berated him in front of the entire class about how easy it was for Dalits to get to IITs through reserved category. He must have gotten very lonely due to the continuing taunts over his caste. The entire nation is talking about the Hyderabad incident, but Aniket’s case remains unresolved.”

Sunita said she had noticed how even close friends on campus often directed casteist remarks very casually at Aniket. Following his death, the family wrote to the HRD ministry and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes besides constantly following up with the institute. With no response, they managed to get their MP to raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha, following which the probe committee was set up.

Also read: Hyderabad varsity on the boil after research scholar ends life

“But even now, we do not know the conclusion of the committee’s inquiry,” said Sanjay, who had spoken to his son the day he died. “I was on my way to the Institute to pick him up as he was to come home that day. 

After knowing where have I reached, he told me that he is going to sleep now. So we did not call him again as he never liked to be disturbed when he was sleeping.”

Prejudice exists
Sanjay said IIT officials would call them over only when they called to ask about the status of the probe. The institute’s Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle later stepped in to help the Ambhores in their quest for closure.

“They never spoke to Aniket’s friends and other students from the improvement class to know the facts about the casteist remarks,” said Sanjay. “We had to request his friends to go to the authorities and give their statements.”

Even then, the college tried to spin it as a case of depression, the family alleged. Sanjay said they were aware that Aniket was disturbed and was undergoing psychological treatment in the months before the incident.

“He accepted there was a problem but was clear that he had to face it,” said Sunita. “This shows he was willing to come out of his disturbed state.

Members of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle said even they had tired of trying to impress upon authorities about the casteist slurs on campus.

Rakhahari Saha from the group told mid-day, “Caste discrimination on IIT-B campus is not explicit. Remarks and taunts from professors as well as students coming from general categories do affect Dalit students. 

Their confidence level goes so low that having an open discussion with faculty members also becomes difficult. This happened in Aniket’s case also. Worst is that even faculty members have the same prejudices, so Dalit students do not come forward.”

Another member, who did not want to be named, said, “The authorities have completely ignored the caste slurs in Aniket’s case. They have turned it into a mental health issue. Whenever we talk to them, their response is always about how they are doing a lot to counsel students. At IIT-B, caste discrimination is an issue never spoken about as neither institute nor students want to talk about it. In fact, many students are trying to hide their caste, fearing the constant taunts. There is a general prejudice among students coming from open category. IIT-B as an institute also adds to this. The official opposition to quotas is well known.”

Students said unlike with their peers, the discrimination by professors is often subtle.

“A professor will randomly ask for your JEE rank to know your background,” said another student. “Then they will pass comments like how it is only students from reserved category who require remedial teaching, etc.”

IIT in denial
Dean of Student Affair at the institute, Prof Soumyo Mukherji, denied there was any casteist slur in Aniket’s, or any other, case. He said the committee was formed “to understand the mental health situation of students on campus and suggest preventive measures to avoid such unfortunate incidents in future.”

“There is no mention of caste remarks or taunts in the report,” said Mukherji. “But in an individual scenario, one would not know. The institute has a strict policy against any kind of discrimination. We have never seen such a compliant go unnoticed or unpunished. In Aniket’s case, it might have been a general comment on students who are lagging behind in studies and attending academic improvement classes. But it might have been perceived differently. This is one unfortunate incident but issue of mental health of students on campus is much larger.”

The Ambhores are unconvinced. The least the institute could do, they said, was to give them so-called report if it was indeed submitted. And help them find closure

- See more at: http://www.mid-day.com/articles/caste-discrimination-continues-to-exist-in-iit-bombay/16881190#sthash.2kDUsKuN.dpuf

Dalit scholar's suicide an indictment of BJP's Hindutva agenda, say Indian Americans - Two Circles

Dalit scholar's suicide an indictment of BJP's Hindutva agenda, say Indian Americans

Submitted by TwoCircles.net on 20 January 2016 - 9:08pm

By TCN News

Washington: The Indian American Muslim Council, an advocacy group aimed at safeguarding India's pluralist and tolerant ethos, expressed shock and outrage over the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad University. Vemula and four other members of Ambedkar Students Association were victimised and subjected to relentless harassment by the University officials, said the Council.

“Rohith Vemula and his associates were clearly targeted for raising issues that were inconvenient not only for upper-caste outfits and University officials, but also for the blatantly anti-Dalit and sectarian BJP administration at the Centre. Their harassment by the University on flimsy grounds included discontinuation of the monthly stipend since July and suspension from the University since September last year,” the council said in a press release.

This council also said that the incident exposes the role of Smriti Irani's Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ministry. This is the second instance where Smriti Irani's Ministry has been found exerting overbearing political pressure and interference in University affairs. The IIT Madras decision to ban the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC) followed the receipt of a letter from Smriti Irani's HRD Ministry. In this case, Smriti Irani's HRD Ministry sent five letters to the Hyderabad University for action on Labour Minister Bandaru Dattareya's complaint regarding "anti-national activities" on the campus and the alleged "violent attack" on an ABVP leader.

"Rohith Vemula's suicide is a chilling example of the deeply entrenched caste-based oppression in India," said Umar Malick, President, Indian American Muslim Council. "His death is not only an occasion for profound sorrow but also a call to action for all who care about human rights and religious freedom. 

Continuing caste-based oppression in modern India and anti-minority repression are the bitter fruits of Hindutva," he added.

The council further said that while the charges against Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and the Vice-Chancellor of the University are a step in the right direction, justice could be elusive unless there is mass outrage over Rohith's suicide, as well as sustained action by civil society institutions. IAMC urged all people of conscience, in India and across the world, to recognise caste-based oppression as a form of racism.

Dalit scholar death: Student leaders trash Irani’s statement - Financial Express

HomeIndia-news Dalit scholar death: Student leaders trash Irani’s statement

Dalit scholar death: Student leaders trash Irani’s statement

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani has made a "wrong statement" regarding the protests in Hyderabad Central University over the alleged suicide of a Dalit scholar and the ongoing row in the institution, student leaders spearheading the agitation claimed here today.

By: PTI | Hyderabad | January 20, 2016 11:34 PM

The students held consultations after Irani addressed a press conference in New Delhi. (PTI)

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani has made a “wrong statement” regarding the protests in Hyderabad Central University over the alleged suicide of a Dalit scholar and the ongoing row in the institution, student leaders spearheading the agitation claimed here today.

“We would like refute each and every point,” a leader of the agitating students said.

The students held consultations after Irani addressed a press conference in New Delhi.

He said the Dalit and student movements have come together in the university following the alleged suicide of Vemula Rohith Chakravarthi.

The minister mentioned that an executive council in the university had Dalit representatives but the body only had a co-opted SC member, he said.

On Irani’s statement that a Congress leader (MP Hanumantha Rao) had also written on issues concerning the university, he said the minister should direct the university to implement the SC and ST sub-plan.

The minister stated that the suicide note of Rohit was the only document made available to her but the deceased had written to the Vice Chancellor earlier, he said.

The issues should not be made a BJP versus Congress issue as it is an issue of Rohit’s alleged suicide and human rights, according to him.

The minister described the punishment given to the student as “lenient” but “social boycott” and “institutional murder” cannot be “lenient”, the student leader said.

The students demanded the arrest of all those figuring in the FIR including Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile.

The protesting students also burnt an effigy of the minister inside the campus.

Hyderabad Lok Sabha member and MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, while speaking before the protesting students tonight, said Irani should have visited the varsity.

“We were expecting the minister would say ‘I am coming to Hyderabad. I want to meet Rohit’s mother. I want to meet those boys who are sitting on strike for the last 15-16 days. I want to hear first-hand from them.’ This would have been a right step in the right direction. Instead (she was) exonerating everyone, giving a clean chit to the Vice Chancellor who is equally responsible for what happened to Rohit,” said Owaisi, who had addressed the students yesterday too.

Alleging that BJP was opposed to egalitarian idea of India, he said such attempts should be foiled.

First Published on January 20, 2016 11:34 pm

Hyderabad University suicide case divides politics in India - Live Mint

Last Modified: Thu, Jan 21 2016. 12 06 PM IST

Hyderabad University suicide case divides politics in India

Rohith Vemula’s suicide case not a confrontation between Dalit and non-Dalit, says Smriti Irani

Nidhi Sinha

Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Even as politicians including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal throng the Hyderababd Central University (HCU), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government on Wednesday said the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula had nothing to do with caste and instead accused its opponents of playing caste politics.

Without naming anyone, human resource development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani said an attempt is being made to project the death as a “Dalit versus non-Dalit issue to ignite passions for political reasons”.

At least 10 SC/ST teachers of HCU have resigned from their administrative roles, protesting Irani’s remarks that Dalit faculty members were also part of the probe that expelled research scholar Rohith Vemula and four others.

According to The Times of India , Prakash Babu, Dean of Students Welfare and member of SC/ST Teachers and Officers Forum, said, “The minister is misleading the nation. We will not work under the administration as there has been no representation from the Dalits in the executive council since the university’s inception.”

At least 20 SC/ST teachers wanted to quit their jobs, before faculty members realised that in that event, students will have no support. It was then decided that teachers will quit from administrative positions, but continue to teach. “It is only by staying in system that we can build pressure on the administration,” added Babu.

Noting that the suicide of Vemula might well be a “turning point” in India’s history, Dalit scholars on Wednesday laid out nine demands and asked the central government to meet them immediately.

They demanded Rs.5 crore compensation for Vemula’s family, a government job for his kin, a home for his family, revocation of suspension of the four Dalit scholars and initiation of criminal proceedings against Hyderabad Central University V-C P Appa Rao, Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya and others who are already facing an FIR under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

They demanded the removal of Dattatreya from the cabinet, of BJP legislator Ramachandra Rao from the legislative council, and removal of V-C Appa Rao and professor Pandu Reddy from the university.

The suicide of Vemula and the national outrage that has followed has also attracted global condemnation. In an open letter to HCU vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, professors and scholars from universities across the globe have appealed that “justice be done in the most recent case of caste discrimination in Indian higher education.” The letter has been signed by 196 academicians, including Christophe Jafferlot, a French political scientist specialising in South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan, at the CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris.

“To me, Rohith Vemula’s suicide is the result of the social milieu which persists in the university system or, rather, on the higher education campuses,” said Sukhadeo Thorat, counted among the country’s most accomplished Dalits. The economist is currently the chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research and was previously the chairman of the University Grants Commission, was quoted in an interview with Scroll.in.

With Dalit leaders speaking up and BJP’s attempt to highlight Dalit student Rohith Vemula as someone who “supported terrorism” finding few echoes, the party on Wednesday went into damage control mode.

Sources said the growing protests from the student community and the anguish expressed by Dalit leaders, including the party’s own MPs, came up for informal discussions at the Cabinet meeting. Party sources said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who suggested that Union ministers Irani, Thaawarchand Gehlot and Nirmala Sitharaman should address a press conference clarifying the government’s stand on the matter.

The incident also casts a wider question on the state of student politics in the country.

In recent times, a pattern is emerging in how the Centre has been reacting to student “unrest” or assertion, writes The Indian Express . Panchajanya’s denouncement of Jawaharlal Nehru University as an “anti-national den” last year was not an isolated comment. The bullying by the HRD ministry of the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle at IIT Chennai and, now, the repeated hectoring of the University of Hyderabad to “take action” against “casteist, extreme and anti-national” elements, to quote a letter by a Central minister, is not innocuous. It is at the heart of the government’s strategy to suppress those who protest, speak, argue and dissent. It is also an acknowledgement of their power as nodes of action that could influence thought. The FTII has been an issue that continues to simmer because it is important for the government to assert itself in creative areas, which are disruptive by definition, and perhaps in this government’s world view, need special handling and a strong shot of mediocrity to snuff life out.

However, Rohith’s suicide was as much about caste as it was about political dissent on campuses. That his final letter is silent about caste or politics has been falsely billed as corroboration that neither killed him. On the contrary, it reflected a depressed and defeated man attempting to clutch at other attributes that defined his persona.

The words used for Vemula indicate how his death has divided politics in the country. “Caste battle”, “confrontation”, “deep shock”, and “unpleasant treatment”, were among terms used on Wednesday by a range of politicians speaking on the scholar’s death.

Finally, though, the question must be posed in terms outside the strict purview of ‘secular-communal’, with its ramifications beyond the immediate politics over the death of Vemula. 

Can a son of a private security guard and a seamstress from a Dalit background dream of writing like Carl Sagan and practice radical Ambedkarite politics within a university campus in India without worrying about his life or liberty or running out of his accommodation and scholarship? Up there, Sagan and Ambedkar must be happy to have Vemula for company.

Nidhi Sinha

Rohith Vemula suicide: Irani puts up a spirited defence, but it's a bit too late - First Post

Rohith Vemula suicide: Irani puts up a spirited defence, but it's a bit too late

by Sanjay Singh  Jan 21, 2016 07:26 IST

Given the enormity of the circumstances leading to the tragic death of Rohit Vemula, a research scholar in a central university and the extraordinary events subsequent to his suicide, it was not completely surprising to see the Union Minister for Human Resource Development holding a press conference on Wednesday. This has been the biggest media headline for the past three days and has somehow snowballed into a politically sensitive -- Dalit versus non-Dalit issue. Add to this, all of BJP's political rivals—Congress, Left, AAP and TMC—have flocked together to launch a concerted attack on the party holding it responsible for the sad incident.

Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. PTI

HRD Minister Smriti Irani's brief was clear. She was assigned the task of telling the world that it is not a Dalit versus non-Dalit issue as some quarters are desperately trying to project it as. Irani therefore repeatedly urged that there is no Dalit versus non-Dalit angle in the whole incident. "Why I have come out today is because a malicious attempt is being made to ignite passions.... It is easy to ignite passions and then regret at leisure. My attempt is an appeal that this is not a Dalit versus non-Dalit issue. Let us not encourage any rumour mongering that promotes casteism and provokes communities. I request let us be extremely responsible..."

Significantly, it is not the high-profile political tourism over Vemula's death that has turned Hyderabad into a tinderbox now, but the elections for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation that are to take place on 2 February. While the national parties and the likes of AAP, TMC and Left have made their position clear, the views of the two regional parties, whose opinions perhaps would have mattered most—the TRS and the TDP—are not known to the wider world. Or perhaps no one, outside of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana cares about what they have to say, for Vemula's unfortunate death has become a national issue.

The government's decision to pitch Irani, known for her aggressive articulation, thus has been largely strategic. As HRD minister, the issue concerns her ministerial domain, but she took four days to come out and make the government's position known on the subject. Smriti's defence for the delay was that she was ascertaining facts and since she held a responsible constitutional position, she couldn't have spoken without adequate information, officially made available to her. A ministerial fact-finding team had been sent to the University of Hyderabad to get details from the institution and the local police. She however, held her media briefing hours before the fact finding team was to submit its report to her.

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The key questions that agitated everyone's mind when she held that briefing was whether Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya was right in writing to her that the University of Hyderabad had become a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics. The labour minister also sought action against Ambedkar Students Association activists and alleged that the university administration had become "mute spectators". The second question was if Irani's ministry was pressurising the University of Hyderabad by sending five reminders while seeking response on Dattatreya letter. An FIR has been filed against Dattatreya and the institution's vice chancellor Appa Rao Podile.

Smriti, one must admit, had come prepared with facts and perspective. She referred to a letter written by Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Hanumantha Rao on 17 November pertaining to sufferings of marginalised community members from the Telangana region in the university. According to an official circular on Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure issued by V Narayansamy, the then minister of personnel in the UPA government, if there is a VIP (MP) reference, it has to be acknowledged in 15 days and another 15 days may be taken to reply to it. Since no response was forthcoming from the university, the ministry had to send reminders. As per the procedure the ministry kept sending reminders to the university from September till late November. The university finally responded in the first week of January. Smriti said by sending reminders the ministry was not doing any special favours to Dattatreya or acting under his pressure but was simply following the procedure because the ministry had sent six reminders to university on Hanumatha Rao's letter.

While defending the government she also referred to the High Court, the executive council nominated by the UPA government, disciplinary committee, hostel warden while emphasizing that some of these officials were from the Dalit community. But what the HRD minister didn't seem to realise is that she took too much of time in ascertaining her facts. The issue has gone beyond the realm of administrative matter. It has become a social, political and a perception issue against her government and her party -- the BJP.

CENTRE SLEPT ON NHRC’S 2013 DALIT DISCRIMINATION REPORT - Bangalore Mirror

CENTRE SLEPT ON NHRC’S 2013 DALIT DISCRIMINATION REPORT

Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Jan 20, 2016, 04.00 AM IST

Students staged a protest in New Delhi on Tuesday

By: Mihika Basu

Union HRD ministry under UPA-II failed to act and did not send a follow-up notice to academic institutions across the country. The new government too did not bother to take up the matter

The Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has been sitting on a National Human Rights Commission's (NHRC's) alert in 2013 on caste-based discrimination and violence against Dalit students in premier educational institutions across India.

Academic institutions across India denied having ever received any specific instructions or directions from the ministry — either under UPA-II rule when the notice was sent to it or later, during the Narendra Modi regime — on taking measures to protect Dalit students from discrimination on their respective campuses.

In the context of the discrimnatory practice in the Hyderabad Central University which led a Dalit research scholar, Rohith Vemula, to commit suicide, the NHRC notice pointing to widespread bias against scheduled caste students gains significance.

The NHRC notice was based on a complaint filed by Kantilal Parmar from the Navsarjan Trust, Ahmedabad, on May 24, 2013. (Interview with Parmar on Page 2) The complaint drew NHRC's drew attention to news reports claiming a series of suicides -- 18 in all -- by Dalit students in educational institutions across India over the years before Parmar's complaint.

The institutions of higher education included a few of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi where Dalit students were discriminated against forcing some of them to commit suicide.

Moreover, Parmar had said in his complaint that this list of 18 was not an exhaustive one as it only covered cases which could be documented and where parents and relatives had raised their voices against the institutions.

An NHRC notice on June 5, 2013, had said: "The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the secretary concerned in the Union ministry of human resource development on the basis of a media report alleging fierce caste-based discrimination and violence in the hostel of Dalit students in Patna University early this year. The Commission has also received a complaint from an NGO, Navsarjan Trust of Ahmedabad, quoting media reports that 18 Dalit students committed suicides during the last four years in premier educational institutions of the country including, among others, IIT, Mumbai; IISc, Bengaluru; IIT, Kanpur; AIIMS, New Delhi."

The NHRC had further stated that the news reports, if true, "reflect widespread prevalence of discrimination towards Dalits in the educational institutions, driving them to take extreme steps".

It had observed that the state has the responsibility and duty to ensure that an atmosphere is created in educational institutions wherein everyone, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, can pursue studies. "The Constitution of India has also elaborate provisions to stop discrimination against the Dalits," the NHRC notice had said.

And yet the MHRD had failed to send out directives to the academic institutions to implement protective measures on a war-footing.

Some directors from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), on condition of anonymity, informed Bangalore Mirror that they either had not received any specific instructions from the MHRD on the issue of discrimination against Dalit students and subsequent steps that could be taken, or they could not recall receiving any such instruction from the Ministry back then following the NHRC notice.

"Usually, the IITs have strong student bodies and mentors in place who can be approached in case a student faces any problem, personally or academically. The office of the dean of student affairs across IIT campuses are also equipped to deal with any kind of discrimination against students. Also, every IIT has a strict mechanism in place to tackle complaints of bias on campus, albeit in a sensitive manner," said an IIT director. 

Widespread feeling

Meanwhile, an article by IIT Bombay's student media body Insight, in its May 2014 edition, had stated that 56 per cent of students belonging to various categories like scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs), felt that discrimination did exist in the institute, albeit in a discreet manner. The survey on first-year students who had joined IIT Bombay in July 2013, had said while 69 per cent freshers denied any caste discrimination, 28 per cent said it was there in an indirect manner while three per cent said they had witnessed it first-hand.

Dalit suicides that led to NHRC alert

* M Shrikant, IIT Bombay (Jan 1, 2007)

* Ajay S Chandra, IISc, Bangalore (Aug 26, 2007)

* Jaspreet Singh, Government Medical College, Chandigarh (Jan 27, 2008)

* Senthil Kumar, University of Hyderabad (Feb 23, 2008)

* Prashant Kureel, IIT Kanpur (April 19, 2008)

* G Suman, IIT Kanpur (Jan 2, 2009)

* Ankita Veghda, Singhi Institute of Nursing, hmedabad (April 20, 2009)

* D Syam Kumar, Sarojini Institute of Engineering and Technology, Vijayawada (Aug 13, 2009)

* S Amravathi, Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad (Nov 4, 2009)

* Bandi Anusha, Villa Mary College, Hyderabad (Nov 5, 2009)

* Pushpanjali Poorty, Visvesvaraiah Technological University, Bangalore (Jan 30, 2010)

* Sushil Kumar Chaudhary, Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow (Jan 31, 2010)

* Balmukund Bharti, AIIMS, New Delhi (March 3, 2010)

* JK Ramesh, University of Agricultural Sciences, B'lore (July 1, 2010)

* Madhuri Sale, IIT Kanpur (November 17, 2010)

* G Varalakshmi, Vignan Engineering College, Hyderabad (Jan 30, 2011)

* Manish Kumar, IIIrd Year BTech, IIT Roorkee (Feb 13, 2011)

* Linesh Mohan Gawle, PhD, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi (April 16, 2011) 

Five Of The Most Shocking Indian Student Suicides In Recent Times, And What They Teach Us About India - India Times

Five Of The Most Shocking Indian Student Suicides In Recent Times, And What They Teach Us About India

Kunal Anand

January 19, 2016

Students ending their lives, unable to cope up with pressure of competitive exams and expectations from families is an increasingly disturbing phenomenon. It is more saddening that for every high profile death, there's countless other students-turned statistics out there, buried inside your newspaper in tiny columns. 

1. January 2016, Hyderabad

The Hindu

Rohith Vemula, one of the five dalit scholars expelled by the University of Hyderabad last year, committed suicide by hanging himself at a hostel.

"The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind," Vemula wrote in his note before killing himself, taking no names.

The 25-year-old, a resident of Guntur, was doing his PhD in science technology and society studies for the past two years, before the scholar allegedly got involved in a tiff with the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in August last year.

2. December 2015, Kota

bccl

14-year-old Bhanu Kumar, found hanging from a fan in his hostel room was the 30th suicide in IIT coaching hub Kota, and also the third suicide in that very week.

Kumar, a resident of Saharsa district in Bihar, came to Kota when he was just 13 to improve his performance in physics and mathematics. He was enrolled in class IX at a city school and at a coaching centre for an edge course in science subjects. However records from his institute showed that he was a regular absentee and the centre had informed his parents about their son's behaviour.

Incidentally, the death happened a day after the district administration undertook a major exercise to de-stress coaching students to curb the spate of suicides. 

3. October 2015, IIT Madras 

An Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) student was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in October. The pre-final-year student dual-degree Electrical Engineering student's on-campus suicide was the second one in the preceding 30 days. 

If you've read our story on IIT Madras's Suicide Problem, you'd not be surprised 

Also read: IIT Madras also tried to censor a suicide survivor's story

4. November 13, 2015, J&K

iamin

Broken after learning that he had failed in his favourite subject, Mohammad Adnan Hilal, a 17-year-old electronics engineering student killed himself in Jammu and Kashmir in November last year.  Four months after his demise, a re-evaluation of the exam paper has found that he had not only passed but had also topped his class in the following subject. 

Understandably shattered to hear the news, Hilal's parents feel that this isn't a case of suicide, but a 'murder' as their son had actually secured 48 marks in Physics instead of 28 as declared earlier.  Adnan's friends and family claimed that Physics was a subject he used to be a master of, so when he saw that he had failed, he jumped into river Jhelum.

5. May 2015, Muzaffarnagar

Image: dailymail

Those who saw Muzaffarnagar's communal warfare in 2015 knew that "love jihad"( even if it was love and no jihad) was lethal. Imrana Bano and Rajneesh Kumar made this mistake, and then another for thinking that Muzzafarnagar wouldn't want to kill them for it.

This was too much to expect from a town which was perpetually a matchbox waiting to catch fire - just getting back on track a year after the riots that left 59 dead and left over 50,000 homeless - all over a alleged molestation. The parents of Rajneesh, a B.A. first year student knew about their love, and had sent him off to Rohtak, away from Imrana, whereas Imrana’s parents had shipped her off away to relative’s house. Imrana Bano was beaten for talking to Rajneesh, and forced into agreeing to marry someone from Shamli district, with an engagement scheduled for May 1.

HYD DALIT’S SUICIDE FINDS AN ECHO IN KALINA CAMPUS - Mumbai Mirror

HYD DALIT’S SUICIDE FINDS AN ECHO IN KALINA CAMPUS

By Ankita Bhatkhande, Mumbai Mirror | Jan 20, 2016, 04.02 AM IST

The protesters, including students from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and IIT-Bombay, joined hands under the banner of Mumbai Student Solidarity Forum.

Simmering tension on University of Hyderabad campus sparked by the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula threatened to spread across the country on Tuesday. Mumbai saw a demonstration by nearly 200 students outside the Kalina campus of University of Mumbai. 

The protesters, including students from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and IIT-Bombay, joined hands under the banner of Mumbai Student Solidarity Forum. They demanded strict action against those responsible for pushing the PhD student to take the extreme step. 

Vemula, who had been living in a tent after being expelled from hostel, killed himself on Sunday evening in Hyderabad. Though the student, who was affiliated to the Ambedkar Students Association, blamed no one for his death, his friends accused Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya of pressing university officials to take action against him. 

The minister had alleged that Vemula and four other ASA members had assaulted a leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad during an agitation on the campus. 

Carrying banners and placards that showed their resentment against politicisation of education, the group also urged Kalina authorities to convey their demands to the Union HRD ministry, apparently in their bid to put pressure on the Union government for prompt action. 

"What has happened to Rohit can happen with anyone. Communal and right-wing forces are entering campuses with a political motive. Instead of resolving the issues of students, the college administration is trying to silence voices of protest," said Ajmal Khan, a research scholar from TISS. 

To reinforce their stand, the students pointed out to a Satyanarayan pooja organised on the campus. "This is an academic space where rituals like these should not be entertained. Instead of celebrating these rituals, we should improve the academic environment," said an IIT-B student requesting not to be named. 

The university security didn't initially allow the demonstrators to enter the campus, but the students stayed put till the administration relented. "The university has given the ABVP permission to hold a candlelight march on the campus. But when students like us from different universities have gathered here, why are they denying our rights to a peaceful protest," said All India Forum for Right to Education member Ghanshyam Sonar at the scene. 

The students insisted that the vice chancellor speak to them and address their issues. "We want the VC to write to the ministry on our behalf as a mark of dissent for this institutional murder of Vemula," said one of them. 

Nearly four hours after the protest began, Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh met the students and assured them to do his bit. He said, "Mumbai university is a secular space. No discrimination would be entertained and tolerated on the basis of caste, class or gender".

Ancient prejudice, modern inequality - The Hindu

January 20, 2016

Ancient prejudice, modern inequality

• ANANYA VAJPEYI

The Hindu

Students from various universities stage a protest in Hyderabad, demanding justice in the aftermath of suicide of University of Hyderabad scholar Rohith Vemula. Photo: K.V.S. Giri

If Ekalavya’s dismembered digit has haunted the Hindu schoolyard from time immemorial, Rohith Vemula’s tragic suicide lays bare the deep inequality undergirding the modern state and its institutions of higher learning

On Sunday, January 17, Rohith Vemula (25), a doctoral student at the University of Hyderabad, reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan in a friend’s hostel room. His death has brought to a head a long-simmering conflict between progressive student groups, and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students’ wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), present on campuses across the country and increasingly belligerent in the prevailing climate of Hindu right-wing dominance.

Rohith, a Dalit, had been involved in campus activism on diverse issues: Ambedkarite politics, protests against beef bans, the persistence of the death penalty in the Indian criminal justice system, and communal violence in Muzaffarnagar in August-September 2013, which left many dead and thousands displaced, mostly Muslims.

 Ananya Vajpeyi

Along with four other Dalit students, Rohith had been evicted from his hostel accommodation about a month ago, his monthly research stipend suspended, allegedly for subversive activities. The university administration as well as the State and Central governments all appear to have been strong-armed by the reactionary ABVP into expelling these five individuals on dubious charges, characterising the victimised students as “casteist”, “extremist” and “anti-national”. All of them belonged to the Ambedkar Students Association, a body similar to the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), a group that had also faced harassment and intimidation from campus authorities in the summer of 2015.

Caste and the Hindu Right

The conflicts in both the University of Hyderabad and the IIT-M illustrate a deep fracture between the Hindu Right and Dalit-Bahujan ideologies, particularly those of the Ambedkarite strain, a fault line that cannot be papered over by electoral alliances of convenience and occasional instances of power-sharing between the two sides. The Sangh Parivar at every level, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to the ABVP, stands against equality, whether between castes, religious communities, or the sexes.

Instead of egalitarianism, the Hindu Right believes in an archaic arithmetic of adhikaar and bahishkaar, entitlement and exclusion, based on caste, religion and gender. If the Indian Republic is built on a plinth of equal citizenship, the Hindu Rashtra would be founded on ritual hierarchy and patriarchy as laid out for centuries in the caste system. Onto this unequal social order of considerable vintage would be layered a deadly neo-Fascist majoritarian politics that arises out of the Hindutva imagination of the modern nation.

This is why, when the Ambedkar Students Association supported the screening of Nakul Singh Sawhney’s film Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai on the University of Hyderabad campus, the ABVP attacked the Dalit activist-students, driving them out of their classrooms and hostels, eventually to the limit where Rohith took the irreversible decision to end his life. Photographs he posted on his Facebook page in 2014 of his parents’ home in the small town of Guntur — a prized red refrigerator in which all the neighbours kept their water bottles, a gas burner, a fan he wryly described as “solar powered” — suggest the great distance from poverty and hardship travelled by this young man to become a doctoral student at one of the most prestigious universities in India. His journey ended violently and abruptly.

But the ostracising of the Sudra and Dalit student from the institutions of education and employment, knowledge and power, is a very old theme in Indian thought on social structure and moral order. The figure of the outcaste student appears in some of our oldest texts that reflect on the relationship between self, society and sovereignty.

In the Mahabharata, Ekalavya, a talented archer prince of the forest tribe of the Nishadas, goes to Dronacharya, the master who teaches young men of the Pandava and Kaurava clans how to wield their weapons. Drona will not admit Ekalavya on account of the tribal status that makes him an outsider to the caste system. Ekalavya goes away, makes an image of Drona, secretly watches him give lessons to Arjuna and the other royals, and teaches himself archery, treating the mud-and-clay Drona as a stand-in for the recalcitrant guru.

When Ekalavya turns out to be a better bowman than the Kshatriya prince Arjuna, Drona asks for his right thumb as tuition fee. Ekalavya agrees, but not without understanding that he is being discriminated against yet again. Ekalavya’s initial disobedience (which makes him a secret apprentice) as well as his later compliance (which costs him his thumb) shame both Drona and his favourite pupil, the supposed beneficiary of this blatant act of prejudice, Arjuna. The story of the Nishada prince shows Drona up as a caste bigot whose classroom reeks of nepotism, even if he knows how to teach his students well, at least the high-born ones he favours.

Ekalavya’s dismembered digit, a bloody and visceral embodiment of caste consciousness, has haunted the Hindu schoolyard from time immemorial. It can be read as quite literally a thumb in Drona’s eye, a jab at our conscience that is as painful for us to experience as it must have been for Ekalavya to lose the very source of his hard-earned skill. He is denied access at every stage: he cannot become Drona’s pupil, but neither is he allowed to become a great archer through his own efforts.

The story of Satyakama Jabali from the Chandogya Upanishad is more complex. Satyakama has no father, and takes his mother Jabala’s name. He goes to the hermitage of the sage Gautama, and wants to be admitted. When asked about his parentage, he acknowledges honestly that he does not know his father’s name or caste. Gautama admits him nevertheless, and performs the initiation ritual to pronounce him a twice-born Brahmin, after which his education begins in earnest.

In the ancient text of the Upanishad, Gautama is willing to entertain Satyakama as a potential pupil because of his honesty: he takes the boy’s love of truth (which is the literal meaning of his name, satya-kama) as proof of his essentially Brahmin nature. Once the teacher has assessed the applicant’s innate worth, he then translates his positive assessment into an upanayana (bestowal of the sacred thread on the boy’s body), naming Satyakama a proper Brahmin and proceeding to educate him accordingly.

Satyakama’s Brahmin identity is clearly attributed to him; it cannot be proven to be intrinsic, since his mother Jabala cannot identify his father. Gautama seems to suggest that ‘Brahmin is as Brahmin does’, i.e., Satyakama has the lakshana (characterising feature) of a Brahmin (because he speaks the truth), even though he does not have the gotra (lineage) of a Brahmin (because his mother was unmarried).

For a modern reader, this is a confusing account. Does Gautama make an exception and admit a non-Brahmin pupil into his hermitage, or does Gautama accept Satyakama because he thinks he recognises him, despite appearances, to be a genuine Brahmin? The exchange between Satyakama and Gautama at the threshold of the ashram, as it were, raising fundamental questions about identity (Who are you? Who am I?), about rights to entry into the portals of the academy, about rule and exception in the caste system, and about the entailments of caste in the strongholds of knowledge and seats of power, is again a moment that has not left our collective conscience for two millennia. Dr. Ambedkar himself reminds us of both these characters, Ekalavya and Satyakama, who for him are damning evidence of the stubborn longevity of caste in Indian history.

The more things change…

Ekalavya did not die and neither did Satyakama, but Rohith did. This sad fact could lead to various conclusions. It is a reflection on the unexpected cruelty and the adamantine ideologies undergirding the modern state and its institutions of higher learning. Drona and Ekalavya, Gautama and Satyakama could to some extent negotiate the terms of their relationship. Rohith ostensibly had the might of the Indian Constitution behind him — his fundamental rights as a citizen, reservations policy for students of his socioeconomic background, and the empowering discourses of the Ambedkarite student group which gave him a certain political awareness and the radical energy to fight for the equality he fully expected and deserved, but never got. And yet, when he was rusticated and ousted from his hostel, when he and his companions felt pushed to stage a “sleep-in” outside the university gates; when his stipend was withheld and he had to borrow money, and when he finally felt like he had hit a wall and had no options, Rohith was far worse off than his metaphorical brothers in the ancient literature.

His heartbreaking suicide note states the piercing truth, the skewer that caste ideology drives into every heart filled with hope: “My birth is my fatal accident.” Yes, this is the human condition: our birth, all birth, is an accident. We do not choose our father or mother, our group or community. But only in India, only in caste society, and only for Dalits does this accident of coming into an unequal life become the fatality of either living with relentless inequality and enduring its cruelties, or dying a terrible, unfair, premature and unredeemed death.

Anil Kumar Meena, a first-year Dalit student at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India’s premier medical college, had hung himself from the fan of his hostel room in March 2012. In Rohith’s poignant Facebook photos, his family’s meagre possessions now stand witness to a life whose promise was extinguished. He had posted that before he got a Junior Research Fellowship, his mother’s humble sewing machine had supported the family.

Like December 16, 2012, the day marked by the horrendous rape and murder of a young woman Nirbhaya, let January 17, 2016 too go down in this country’s history as the dark day of the death of a student, Rohith Vemula, who was promised a chance at dignity and prosperity by our founders, and whom we abandoned, to our eternal shame.

(Ananya Vajpeyi, author of Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India (2012), is with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.)

Why are India's Dalit students taking their lives? - BBC News

Why are India's Dalit students taking their lives?

Soutik Biswas  Delhi correspondent

• Image copyrightRohith Vemula's Facebook page

Image captionRohith Vemula, a PhD student at the Hyderabad Central University, killed himself on Sunday

"My birth is my fatal accident... I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life... I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I am doing this."

These are excerpts from the last letter - "this kind of letter for the first time" - that Rohith Vemula, a PhD student at Hyderabad Central University wrote before he killed himself on Sunday. 

It is, at once, an eloquent and chilling suicide note: a young man who loved "science, stars, nature and people", and aspired to become a science writer like Carl Sagan, ended up defeated and crushed by discrimination and apathy. 

'Steadily isolated'

Mr Vemula, 26, was one of five Dalit - formerly known as untouchable - students who were protesting against their expulsion from the university's housing facility. India's 180 million Dalits are among its most wretched citizens, because of an unforgiving and cruel caste hierarchy that condemns them to the bottom of the heap.

Mr Vemula and the four other students faced allegations last August that they attacked a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) - the student wing of the governing Hindu nationalist BJP - on the campus. Some reports say an investigation had found no "conclusive evidence" of the assault. 

Last year the students had also protested against the execution of Yakub Memon, the man convicted of financing the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings and the right-wing ABVP's stalling of a documentary film on the Muzaffarnagar riots in Delhi University. 

One newspaper said the sequence of events leading to Mr Vemula's death shows how he was "steadily isolated by campus authorities and his appeals went largely unheard". 

The university stopped paying his monthly stipend of 25,000 rupees ($369; £258) allegedly because he raised issues under the campus's Dalit-led students union. 

It also began an investigation into his - and his friends - conduct. In August federal minister Bandaru Dattatreya, a BJP junior minister, wrote a letter to the federal education ministry complaining that the university had become a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics". 

In September, Mr Vemula and four other students were suspended - although the minister denies this was linked to his missive, which he says was not about the Dalit students, but a general comment on the restive campus. 

Image copyrightPress Trust of India

Image captionThere have been countrywide protests against Mr Vemuli's death

Image copyrightFacebook image

Image captionMr Vemula was accused of allegedly assaulting a student

Mr Vemula's death has sparked off a firestorm of protest across India. 

Poet and writer Meena Kandasamy says the student's suicide was "not just an individual exit strategy, it is a shaming of society that has failed him or her". She wrote "education has now become a disciplining enterprise working against Dalit students: they are constantly under threat of rustication, expulsion, defamation, discontinuation".

Mr Vemula's is not an exceptional story of caste discrimination on India's campuses. One report said eight Dalit students had taken their lives "unable to cope" with caste politics at Hyderabad University in the past decade. Between 2007 and 2011 alone, 18 Dalit students ended their lives in some of India's premier educational institutes, according to another estimate. 

Shocking abuse

Some eight years ago, Apoorvanand, who teaches at Delhi University, had gone to Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India's leading medical school, to investigate a case of discrimination against a Dalit student. 

He says he found vile abuses written on the doors and walls of hostel rooms where Dalit students lived. (There was no name calling, because direct abuse would lead to prosecution under tough anti-discrimination laws.) When he went to the director of the institute to lodge a complaint, the latter flatly denied that there was caste discrimination on the campus.

This is a school which produces India's best doctors. This is also the school where a federal investigation into complaints of caste-based harassment and discrimination against Dalit and tribal students uncovered a shocking picture of abuse. 

Image copyrightGetty Images

Image captionIndia's 180 million Dalits are among its most disprivileged citizens

The probe found most of the Dalit and tribal students complaining that they "did not receive the kind of support other students received from their teachers". Examiners asked about their caste backgrounds. The students said teachers did not give them the marks they deserved in exams, and their papers were not evaluated properly. More than 90% of the students said they were routinely humiliated by examiners in practical and oral examinations.

"There is systemic persecution of Dalit students in Indian universities. They are often failed by their teachers deliberately," Apoorvanand told me.

Many Dalit students who get into colleges and universities through affirmative action quotas - restorative justice for centuries of historical wrongs against the community - come to campuses with deficiencies in education, including a feeble command over the English language. Most of them are first generation graduates, come from poor families - like Mr Vemula, born of a father who works as a security guard and a mother who's a tailor - and often struggle to fit in. 

Fierce competition

India's colleges and universities are theatres of fierce competition and confrontation: only a privileged few manage to get a limited number of seats through fiercely contested exams. 

Upper caste students, say many, have a "natural hatred and antagonism" for the Dalits and tribespeople who take up seats reserved for their communities. "There is a lot of anger against affirmative action and their beneficiaries, but then there is little the upper castes can do about it because the quotas are constitutionally mandated," says Apoorvanand. 

So the students are shamed and mocked at as "quota students", and their abilities mocked. In absence of effective student support groups or university structures, warning meltdown signals among suffering students are ignored. 

Fed up with the way things were going, Mr Vemula wrote to the university authorities in December to allow him to die and even spoke about how they could help him and his Dalit friends end his life. The authorities apparently did nothing.

Politicians are accused of not confronting this appalling discrimination with the zeal it deserves. 

Instead, Dalit and tribals have also become pawns in India's hideous vote bank politics. In modern-day India, the segregation of Dalits begins early: they are separated by markers and coloured wrist bands in classrooms; and forced to clean school toilets. Upper caste school children routinely boycott school lunchescooked by Dalit cooks. 

Mr Vemula is just the latest victim of India's scourge of untouchability.