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Thoroughly embarrassed by the contents of the closure report that endorsed the version of the accused, the Congress government initiated immediate damage control measures. The DGP of Telangana, in a press release, clarified that the closure report was prepared before November 2023, suggesting it was the act of the previous BRS government. After the political fiasco over the closure report, the Telangana police decided to file a petition in the concerned court to permit further investigation into the suicide case.
Capitalising on the Congress government flip-flop on such a politically sensitive issue, the BJP leader and the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi for politicising Rohith Vemula's suicide. She said that the intolerance, political interference, and hate lay not with the Union government but with vested interest groups which do not lose any opportunity to bring this toxin into centres of higher education.
Realising that the BJP is trying to gain a political advantage out of this, Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal, in a statement released on Sunday, said that there were discrepancies in the Rohith Vemula investigation and the Congress government in Telangana would ensure justice to the family. In his social media post, the Congress leader said that Rohith Vemula's death was a grave atrocity that completely exposed the anti-Dalit mindset of the BJP.
The Congress leader’s remarks came a day after Rohit Vemula's mother Radhika Vemula met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and urged him to ensure justice. His brother Raja Vemula said that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy expressed doubts regarding the reports prepared by the previous government and has promised transparency and fairness in the reinvestigation.
However, the Congress government cannot escape the huge political embarrassment given the fact that the closure report was filed four months after the Congress came to power. How can the Telangana police act with such callousness on such a politically sensitive case that too at the time of elections?
The Congress' worries are justified. The party is facing a surging BJP as the BRS is significantly declining after its defeat in the Assembly elections. As per the Lokniti CSDS post-poll study, the Scheduled Caste voters significantly rallied behind the Congress.
Surveys reveal that the BJP’s attempts to make a dent into the Congress' Dalit vote by making the Prime Minister endorse the demand for sub-classification seem to be showing no impact on the ground in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Therefore, the Congress party cannot afford to do anything that damages its crucial support base.
Justice in the Rohit Vemula case gives credence to the Congress' electoral promise of bringing an act in the name of the late scholar to fight discrimination against students belonging to marginalised communities on University campuses. Keeping all this in mind, the Congress government was quick to respond by ordering reinvestigation.
(Prof K Nageshwar is a senior political analyst, faculty member of Osmania University, and a former MLC. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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