5 mistakes of a Dalit student's life (not by Chetan Bhagat)

I am a Dalit.

I am a Dalit.

I am a Dalit.

I am a Dalit.

I am a Dalit.

You speak to a cross-section of Dalit students and the D-word is the centrepiece of every argument. That the D-gene has been a permanent blemish on their CV. That but for the D-factor, each one of them is a winner. That the D-tag is like a red rag to the "upper castes" who want to "put us down".

Listen keenly to the voices and you realise "D" also stands for "Defiance". The Dalit identity has been a badge of revolt. Students at the University of Hyderabad, where a Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula committed suicide on Sunday, told me they are discriminated at the hostel ("because we are deemed to be unclean"), at the mess ("because we eat beef") and in the classroom ("because we cannot speak good English").

Rohith was part of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), a group the Dalit students embraced to find comfort, solace and strength in numbers. Post July 30, it protested the hanging of Yakub Memon on campus. Its slogans painted Yakub Memon as a martyr, a hero, someone whose deeds deserved to be emulated. "If you hang a Yakub, thousands of Yakubs will emerge" was part of the narrative.

Now in BJP and its student wing ABVP's book, that is earning a ticket to Pakistan. Not a surprise then that the ABVP president of the Hyderabad Central University, Susheel Kumar referred to them as "goons" in a Facebook post.

Rohith was part of the group of 30 ASA members that then allegedly barged into Susheel Kumar's hostel room at an unearthly hour and "bullied and manhandled" him. Wonder if that meant that while the ASA had the right to glorify Yakub Memon, a man certified by the courts as a terrorist who - right or wrong - deserved to die but a contrary jibe, taunt was not acceptable. If ASA had the right to expression, so did Susheel. If Susheel was wrong, so was ASA. Susheel subsequently apologised for his Facebook post. The matter did not end there as the Proctorial Board decided to investigate the matter.

And there started the muddle. An initial probe found no medical evidence to prove Susheel was manhandled. A second probe by the same committee however, did a U-turn and found he had been assaulted. A senior faculty member of the University explained the U-turn saying, in the first probe Susheel was not available for examination. This shoddy manner of investigation carried out in a cavalier manner has cast a shadow over this entire episode.

Because around the same time, landed on HRD minister Smriti Irani's desk, a letter written by Secunderabad MP and Union minister of state for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya. In the strongly worded letter, Dattatreya tore into the ASA, alleging that its activities have reduced the University to a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics". This letter written on August 17, 2015 is being cited to say the BJP is trying to force a saffron agenda on the campus and to demand Dattatreya's resignation.

The University alleges the ASA and supporting organisations once again used muscle power to storm the administrative office after four Dalit research scholars, found guilty of manhandling Susheel, were suspended. The University caved into pressure and revoked the suspension. It set up an Executive Council sub-committee which found five scholars, including Rohith guilty and expelled them on December 18. A member of the sub-committee told me "there was sufficient evidence to prove their guilt. In fact, the punishment meted out was watered down". In his book, the five scholars in that group of 30, had transgressed the line and deserved the punishment.

That is where Rohith decided to wear his caste card on his sleeve. In a stinging letter to the VC, dipping with anguish and sarcasm, he suggested that a nice rope be supplied to the rooms of all Dalit students. Rohith also asked for 10 mg of sodium azide to be served to all Dalit students at the time of admission. He asked "your highness" (referring to the VC) to make preparations for euthanasia for students like him. It was a cry of pain but clothed in the cloak of victimhood. The underlying insinuation was that at the behest of "Hindu upper caste" BJP-ABVP, the interests of Dalit students were being butchered.

Like a famous Indian cricket captain who when accused of match-fixing fell on the communal card to defend himself, Rohith had fallen back on the identity that had defined him for most part of his aware life. The tragedy is that post his tragic demise, the two-page letter courtesy thousands of xerox copies, is being milked to split the campus on Dalit versus non-Dalit lines.

If a post attributed to Rohith on Facebook is true, he practised extreme intolerance, an eye for an eye approach and use of intemperate language to challenge and rubbish figures, respected by others. In the post, Rohith called Swami Vivekananda "an apologist of caste system, misogynist and a fake intellectual". In this note, he wrote, "He is an overrated, half-witted person who has no scientific references to his rants, there was no actual and original ideas or knowledge production from this guy. I am surprised and disappointed at the kind of institutionalised celebration of his birthday in HCU".

For two weeks in January, Rohith and four Dalit research scholars slept in the open as they were denied access to the hostel. Their compatriots on campus called it "a social boycott". That it was a humiliation meted out to them for daring to take on the system. In his suicide note, Rohith points out that he has not been given seven months of his fellowship, amounting to Rs 1, 75,000. "Please see to it that my family is paid that", he wrote. Many point out that Dalit students are routinely denied their due by the system, a more invisible way of harassment, pushing them? to rebel.

Why did Rohith kill himself, is a question that will never quite find an answer. Those who know him alternate between "he was a strong boy" and "he was aloof and withdrawn last few days". But for me, as someone who did not know him, never met him, his lines in the suicide note make me lament the loss of a young man. "I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write."

And how ironical that the banner of the Ambedkar Students Association that was Rohith's political lifeline, became the noose around his neck.

The loss of a budding science writer, who dreamt of becoming a star, was reduced to becoming the poster-boy for empty, meaningless sloganeering. The mistake we - and WE includes all of us - will make is to see Rohith as a Dalit. To me, he was an Indian who dared to punch above his weight.

The manner in which everyone is rushing in to cash in on his death, makes you sick. The charge is that the VC's hands are soaked in Rohith's blood. But can the ASA also look at its own hands as well. And introspect if hurtling a bright mind on the path of mindless confrontation did not kill him.

Political parties have swooped down, like vultures looking for easy prey. The tragedy gives the Congress, the TRS and the rest of the non-BJP pantheon a chance to paint BJP as an anti-Dalit party. In the Telangana context, this is with the limited objective to arrest the BJP's performance in the Greater Hyderabad municipal polls. Nationally, the Congress would hope to reach out to the Dalit votebank. This despite Rohith's family appealing for no politics to be played over his death.

There are no easy answers. There is no one answer. It is a time to mourn. It is also a time to promise not to let the system or outfits with selfish interests piggyback on fragile minds.

As Rohith writes in his suicide note: "I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty.''

Empty.