Social activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad said that at a time when the country is plagued by complete absence of institutional accountability and shrinking media space for socio-political movements, students and youngsters brought the caste discrimination in the universities and elsewhere into limelight post Rohit Vemula’s tragic suicide.
Several Dalit students ended lives despaired by caste discrimination in the universities, but Rohit Vemula’s suicide to protest the caste bias he was subjected triggered an iconic movement. Giving a talk on caste and communalism to mark the first death anniversary of Rohit Vemula of Hyderabad Central University at Lamakan here on Tuesday, Ms. Setalvad cited the failure to implement recommendations of Thorat Committee as a glaring example of complete lack of institutional memory in the country.
Thorat Committee was constituted by the UPA government in 2007 to end discrimination of students of Dalit and marginalised sections of society in educational institutions from schools to the universities.
Even after Rohit Vemula case, unrest in the Hyderabad Central University, sedition cases against JNU students, the prejudice and bias against the marginalised sections continued. The recent suspension of 10 students of JNU for questioning the biased evaluation and examination system was not questioned even by the opposition and it hardly found space in the media.
“We are only good at passing laws and amendments without amending the relevant sections in CrPC and IPC. When are we actually going to challenge the prejudices based on caste and community as a society ?”
Unless people from different sections actively and constantly engaged with the governments, laws would not be implemented. Even today there were no remedial courses offered for marginalised sections in the universities nor grievance redressal mechanism in place,” she said.
Fortunately opposition was coming from youngsters against the fascist forces. Communities should rally around movement for Rohit Act, Ambedkar Equality Act against discrimination in university campuses but equally important was taking the narrative of inclusion in governance and social institutions into people through social media and even through Whats App, she suggested later in an interaction.
The best laws would come only when there was suitable political climate - open and liberal that existed in the past, she said.
