Non-bailable offences, ₹1 lakh fines, and sweeping powers: Inside the draconian ‘Rohith Vemula Bill’ Congress plans to push in Karnataka and why it should alarm every Indian
After ‘Caste X-ray’ and caste-based wealth redistribution rhetoric, the Congress party has found another way to continue its caste-centric politicking with the Rohith Vemula Bill. Following a push from Congress prince Rahul Gandhi, the Karnataka government is set to introduce the Rohith Vemula (Prevention from Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Bill, 2025, in the coming monsoon session of the state assembly.
This bill is named after Rohith Vemula, the PhD scholar from the University of Hyderabad, who committed suicide on 17th January 2016. His suicide had sparked a nationwide uproar over alleged caste discrimination against the deceased. It, however, turned out eventually that Vemula was not a Dalit.
Provisions of the Rohith Vemula Bill
The draft bill is posited to prevent discrimination and ensure equal access to education for marginalised groups in the higher education institutions in Karnataka, including public, private and deemed universities.
The Rohith Vemula Bill safeguards Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backwards Classes (OBC), and ‘minorities’ from exclusion or injustice, to ensure their right to education and dignity.
It also provides that offences under this bill are non-bailable and cognizable. This essentially means that the police can make an arrest without a warrant. The first-time offenders face a minimum one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000. This compensation amount is to be paid by the accused to the victim, and it can extend up to Rs 1 lakh.
Moreover, repeat offences will invite a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
Under this law, if passed, the victim or their kin can file police complaints directly, enabling quick action against alleged discrimination.
In addition, institutions found violating the bill’s provisions would lose state financial aid or grants. If an institution violates the provision of being “open to all classes, castes, creed, gender or nation”, then “the state government “shall not provide any financial aid or grant to such institution”.
Congress wants to name an anti-caste discrimination bill after Rohith Vemula, even as he was not a Dalit: Goebbelsian playbook?
Congress and its prince, Rahul Gandhi, position themselves as the messiah of ‘peedit, shoshit, vanchit’, and to prove the same, they decided to name the anti-caste discrimination legislation after a ‘Dalit’ victim, Rohith Vemula. It, however, is ironic that their Dalit poster boy was not even a Dalit.
Apparently, Congress has taken a page from Nazi politician Joseph Goebbels’s playbook, and decided to not only repeat a lie till it becomes truth but also name laws after the lies repackaged as truth.
The Telangana Police presented a closure report regarding the case to the Telangana High Court on 3rd May of last year. It emphasised that he did not belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category and that he died by suicide, fearing the exposure of his true caste identity. The authorities also exonerated former Secunderabad MP and current governor of HaryanaBandaru Dattatreya, Legislative Council Member N Ramachander Rao, former Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) leaders and former Union Minister Smriti Irani.
“There is no evidence of any fact or circumstance available on the record which dragged him to commit suicide and no one is responsible for his death,” the closure report stated. The report added that Rohith Vemula committed suicide because “he had his own problems and was not happy with worldly affairs. If he would have been angry with the decision of the University, certainly either he would have written in specific words or would have indicated in this regard. But he did not do the same. It shows that the circumstances prevailing in the university at the time were not the reason for Rohith’s death.”
According to the closure report, Rohith Vemula was “aware that he does not belong to the Scheduled Caste” and received the SC certificate from his mother. It adds that this could have been one of Rohith Vemula’s continuous fears, as disclosing it could have ended in the loss of academic degrees and perhaps prosecution.
As per Rohith Vemula’s father Mani Kumar, he and his spouse are not Mala of Madigas (SC/ST) but rather members of the Veddera caste. The statement was in contradiction to the reports that his mother, Radhika Vemula, belongs to a Dalit community (SC or ST), and he opted to identify with her caste after the couple separated.
His father emphasised that Rohith Vemula was murdered and criticised leftist groups for exploiting his son’s death to launch attacks against the Modi administration. Moreover, his mother alleged that she was born into a Mala caste (SC) family but was raised by a Veddera family.
In 2017, the Andhra Pradesh government was reported to have cancelled Rohith Vemula’s scheduled caste certificate, asserting that he was actually a member of the Other Backwards Classes (OBC). The government contended that the SC certificate had been acquired through “fraudulent” means.
Merely because it was initially claimed that Rohith Vemula was a Dalit, Congress and other opposition parties, joined by the leftist media ecosystem, raised the caste discrimination bogey and built a narrative accusing the Modi government of oppressing lower caste groups of society. This came, even though his suicide note expressed his dissatisfaction with the Students Federation of India (SFI). While Rohith Vemula was discontent with the SFI, the leftists continue to hold events and seminars in his remembrance, only to vilify non-Dalit Hindus and push an anti-Hindu agenda
Rahul Gandhi and his ‘caste’ fixation now taking shape of legislations: An alarming pivot towards divisive caste-centric politics
This draft bill comes after Congress MP and Leader of Opposition (LoP), Rahul Gandhi, wrote to CM Siddaramiah urging him to bring a legislation in Rohith Vemula’s name to end caste-based discrimination in educational institutions.
In a 16th April letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Rahul Gandhi urged the state government to pass the “Rohith Vemula Act” to guarantee that no one is subjected to caste-based discrimination in the educational system. The development transpired after he met with students and teachers of the Dalit, Adivasi and OBC communities in Parliament and was allegedly informed that caste discrimination is pervasive in higher education.
Soon after, CM Siddaramiah wrote a letter to Rahul Gandhi informing him that he had instructed his legal team to start drafting the “Rohith Vemula Act.”
“I too, deeply share your sentiments, we must join hands to bring the Dalits, Adivasis and Backwards classes into the mainstream. That the oppressed classes must no more face any discrimination in our educational system. My government and I are committed to ensuring an egalitarian and equal society,” he claimed in the letter to Gandhi.
The Congress party and Rahul Gandhi have long been divisive, caste-based politicians for their electoral gains. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, Congress, in its manifesto, committed to carrying out a nationwide ‘Caste X-ray’ (caste census) to assess the socio-economic status of various sub-castes as well as pledged to incorporate fishing communities into the caste census. Congress even declared its intention to raise the reservation cap from the current 50%, a poll promise it continues to reiterate time and again, even as the people of India rejected Congress for the third consecutive time in the general elections.
The Gandhi scion went a step ahead and even announced that if voted to power, Congress would carry out a caste-based wealth redistribution based on the findings of the ‘caste X-ray’.
Congress also sought to impose the “Rohit Vemula Act” throughout the nation if it secured power at the centre. “We will enact the Rohith Vemula Act to address discrimination faced by students belonging to the backwards and oppressed communities in educational institutions,” the manifesto read.
Rohith Vemula Bill: A step towards ending caste discrimination in educational institutions or a weapon against non-Dalit Hindus?
By naming the bill after Rohith Vemula, Congress wants to tap into the emotional resonance, though devoid of any factual relevance, to galvanise support from the SC, ST, and OBC Hindus. However, this bill risks being a draconian measure against general-category students and faculty, as they could be disproportionately targeted.
Over the years, the rising misuse of the SC/ST Act to falsely implicate general category individuals for personal vendetta and other reasons, devoid of actual caste discrimination, has received criticism from the courts. The Rohith Vemula Bill, if passed, could also be misused in a similar manner.
The controversial bill’s broad categorisation of SC, ST, OBC, and ‘minorities’ under a single protected group is deeply concerning. The bill’s provisions, so far, fail to address specific caste realities while conveniently including ‘minorities’, which obviously is Congress’s way of including the Muslim community under the ‘peedit, shoshit, vanchit’ fold and further establish the Muslim victimhood narrative.
The non-bailable and cognizable provisions of the bill could be misused against those not covered under the bill’s protective umbrella. While naming the bill after Rohith Vemula, a non-Dalit presented as a Dalit, might hand some political gains to Congress, it will come at the cost of fostering division and hatred against the so-called ‘upper caste’ Hindus.
Taking inspiration from the divide and rule policy of the British colonisers, Congress is hell bent on perpetuating a cycle of caste-based identity politics to widen the fissures and exploit the same to hold on to power. This will not be confined to Karnataka alone, but will soon extend to other Congress-ruled states including Himachal Pradesh and Telangana. The Congress government in Telangana has already moved High Court to reopen Rohith Vemula case and is proceeding towards introducing the bill. After proposing laws on hate speech and misinformation, the Congress is bringing the Rohith Vemula Bill to control narratives, all while projecting itself as the defender of free speech, democracy, the idea of India and what not.
News