Why bypass due process of law to term Rohith non-Dalit?

Polibelly/Economic Times
February 1, 2016
Rajesh Ramachandran
It doesn’t make any sense for BJP to accuse the family of Rohith Vemula of forging a caste certificate. Rohith is a victim of our academic system, political interference and campus rivalry. His victimhood does not get altered because he was pitted against ABVP. By claiming that Rohith was not a Dalit, the BJP leadership is questioning the victim’s integrity and terming the family frauds.
This political strategy can only further alienate from BJP those who are grieving for Rohith. 

There is a legitimate method to probe whether a caste certificate is genuine or not. The government of Andhra Pradesh can ask the district collector of Guntur to verify the caste certificate issued to Rohith. The district collector after hearing Rohith’s family can present his findings to the government, which at the highest level can decide to set aside Rohith’s caste certificate. There are guidelines for issuing, questioning and cancelling caste certificates, endorsed by the Supreme Court.
BJP is bypassing this due process of law to jump into a conclusion based on some secret police reports, why? It seems BJP believes that if Rohith is proven to be a non-Dalit, the issue will lose its political gravitas. Well, every unlettered Dalit is aware of the threat of an enquiry into his or her caste certificate. It is but natural for a desperate Dalit to hide his caste to escape oppression and then to reveal it to get governmental benefits. 

So, an attack on Rohith’s caste certificate will make ordinary Dalilts bristle because the only identity that Rohith held dear as a student was that of an Ambedkarite. As a meritorious student who did not use his caste certificate to get into the University of Hyderabad, he had the option of calling himself an OBC Vaddera as his estranged father was a Vaddera. But he chose to uphold the Dalit Mala identity of his mother. An offspring of a mixed marriage, Rohith could have got his caste certificate because he was brought up in a Mala neighbourhood as a Mala. 

Whatever be the reason, Rohith chose to be a Dalit and an Ambedkarite. Sure, there are non-Dalit Ambedkarites, but in this caste-ridden society no non-Dalit would want to be called a Dalit. When Rohith calls himself a Dalit, without using or misusing his caste certificate, he has every right to his identity. For someone from the lowest stratum of the society, there is nothing to be proud about being an outcast. Only burning idealism could have turned him into a fullfledged Ambedkarite. 

Forget for a second Rohith was a Dalit. There cannot be any argument over his identity as an Ambedkarite and that is the most potent political label for a Dalit. BJP should understand that it is not reassuring the Dalit masses by questioning the dead student’s caste and by challenging an Ambedkarite’s identity. The BJP leadership, instead of taking on its political rival, Rahul Gandhi, is wasting its time targeting Rohith.

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