The Daily Fix: As role of HRD ministry in suspension emerges, BJP faces Dalit backlash for Rohith’s death

The Latest: Top stories of the day

1. Rohith Vemula suicide: Poet Ashok Vajpeyi to return Hyderabad University D Litt degree.
2. Step up or step back: Omar Abdullah challenges Mehbooba Mufti about her delay in allying with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
3. Delhi and Chennai to open national centres for the elderly.
4. Postcard with "ISIS initials" contains threat to kill Narendra Modi, Manohar Parrikar.
5. Karnataka government files a list of errors in Jayalalithaa’s acquittal

The Big Story: David versus Goliath

As the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vermula on Sunday has sparked protests and political action throughout the country, details emerged on Tuesday of how the Union Human Resources Ministry had written at least four letters to Hyderabad University, following a Bharatiya Janata Party minister’s letter to the HRD ministry in August 2015 expressing an interest in the case. Dattatreya’s letter demanded that action be taken against Dalit student body, the Ambedkar Students Association. Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who is now facing charges of aiding the suicide of the Dalit student of the Hyderabad Central University, in the letter, had alleged that the campus had turned into “a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics”.

While the ministry said that they had only followed official protocol, the university ignored its own investigation committee that had cleared the students of any wrong doing, suspended five Dalit scholars and froze Vemula’s stipend.

As the BJP grapples with this, its response to the suicide has also been to dismiss this as “nothing to do with Dalit issues”, which has produced a backlash from its own Dalit members. Sanjay Paswan, who heads the BJP’s Scheduled Caste Morcha and is a former union minister publicly called out his party’s stand on the matter.

The opposition has also seized the matter, with Rahul Gandhi making a visit to the university.

The Big Scroll

Read the letters the Human resources ministry wrote about “anti-national” activities on campus. Rohith’s death has caused shock as both academics and students express grief and anger at the events which caused a young man to end his life.

Politicking and policying

1. Assam chief minister took a dig at Prime Minister Modi, saying people should tip their hat to his acting skills.

2. Maharashtra gets a rap from the Bombay High Court for not razing illegal shrines.

3. The Delhi police is leaking details of Arvind Kerjriwal’s security, claims the Aam Aadmi Party.

4. About 25% of 18,452 unelectrified villages got power since the Prime Ministers Independence Day speech in 2015 announcing that these areas will get power within 1,000 days.

Punditry

1. It is not incidental that Rohith Vemula and his dissent were crushed says Seema Chisti writing the Indian Express.

2. Amit Tandon, writing in the Business Standard, explains why India Inc’s boards can’t ignore social media anymore.

3. Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian publicly differed with RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and took a bet on accelerating growth. He is clearly losing says Puja Mehra in the Hindu.

4. Rohith Vemula’s memory will endure and damage the Bharatiya Janata Party, says Sushil Aron in the Hindustan Times.

Don’t Miss

Parvaiz Bukhari on the real reason Mehbooba Mufti is delaying government formation in Jammu and Kashmir

Although she never made even an oblique reference to it, Mehbooba Mufti was unhappy about the alliance. As were some stalwarts in her party. One of them, Tariq Hameed Karra, has repeatedly made his displeasure public. After Sunday’s party meeting, he said his silence should not be read as agreeing with the PDP’s alliance with the BJP.

Mehbooba Mufti’s challenge now is to keep her party together while staying on the path her father charted in the end and she secretly disagreed with. Earlier, all loyalty in the PDP centred around Sayeed. Now she is seeking to become the unchallenged centre herself.