Rohith Vemula suicide: HRD panel may question variance in Hyderabad University reports

NEW DELHI: The two-member fact-finding committee of the human resource development ministry looking into the handling of the Rohith Vemula case by the Hyderabad Central University is likely to raise questions over the sharp variances between the interim and final Proctorial Board inquiries, especially on reasons why the final inquiry only indicted one group of students.

This is also one of the key issues raised by the agitating students besides the fact that the vice-chancellor did not stay in direct touch with the five students.

The report is likely to describe the incident as one of student indiscipline which went out of hand.

The interim inquiry on August 12, 2015 had censured both groups – the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) – but the final meeting on August 31 went on to expel only the five ASA students including Rohith. This meeting happened after Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya forwarded the ABVP representation.

The August 31 meeting also examined ABVP’s Susheel Kumar, who had alleged that he had been "abused, manhandled and beaten" by the ASA group. He did not appear in the interim meeting of the Proctorial Board on medical grounds, where the Board issued a "strong warning" to both student groups. "Yes, the fact-finding committee was interested in examining the documents related to the Proctorial Board meetings, the entire student file on Rohith and chain of events. They sought all details on reports of alleged suicides committed by Dalit students from the University", a highly placed official from the university told ET on condition of anonymity.

From the detailed accounts shared about Rohith Vemula by his classmates, faculty and PhD Guide, the committee is likely to observe that he was an "exceptionally brilliant student". He topped his PhD interview and performed well in academics. Interestingly, he was in regular touch with his PhD guide until August 2015. But after the train of events that followed, he stopped responding to his guide.

Initial findings suggest that the disciplinary proceedings had a cumulative impact on Rohith more than the others because his Junior Research Fellowship funding was also stopped the same month as he changed his area of work from animal science to science, technology and society studies. Disciplinary action, he had apparently feared, would delay this technical process of changing subjects and thus, impact his financial sustenance.

Two aspects pointed out repeatedly by the agitating students to the committee were: the lack of direct engagement by Vice-Chancellor Prof Appa Rao Podile with the five affected students before and after Rohith’s suicide and a discrepancy between the action suggested against the students in the interim Proctorial Board report and the final report.

"We have had no direct engagement at all with the VC since the incident. He did not meet the five students even before Rohith’s suicide and did not bother to come in afterwards either at his home or with the other students," Munna Sannaki of the ASA told ET. Sannaki has been spearheading the campaign on this issue and had sent memorandums to New Delhi earlier this month as well. The university administration has, however, maintained that they went strictly by the rule book in dealing with the situation.