Sushma Swaraj is imitating Smriti Irani and looking ridiculous

A week ago, when HRD minister lashed out at a press conference denouncing the attempt by rival political parties to turn the tragic suicide of scholar Rohith Vemula into a political and caste war and calling it a "malicious attempt to ignite passions", it was seen as a feeble attempt by the Modi government to defend itself from accusations of being anti-Dalit.

Yesterday, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's assertive testimony that Vemula was not a Dalit - that too coming after social media was erupting with Vemula's father's OBC stock - is despicable as it is a bare-faced attempt to politicise the issue!

Swaraj's statement came the day Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi joined the strike with protesting students demanding to look into the causes that led to Rohith's suicide. Gandhi is among the many other political leaders who have visited Hyderabad since the suicide.

Now, the HRD minister's educational qualification is under a cloud with allegations flying she has given false certificates, but can Swaraj, who is an accomplished lawyer, be issuing caste certificates so arbitrarily? Consider the facts: Vemula's father, Mani Kumar is indeed a Vadera, an OBC, but his mother, Radhika, is a Mala, a scheduled caste. Her caste was kept a secret when she was married off by her adoptive OBC mother but she was kicked out by the husband when he discovered the truth and claimed to have been cheated. Rohith and his two siblings were brought up by their mother as Dalits.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally conceded that Swaraj has more heft than Irani and has asked her to salvage the situation by making the declaration, there couldn't be a worse spot the external affairs minister could be in. It's ludicrous that an official no less than NSA Ajit Doval's office has also certified Vemula is not a Dalit but OBC.

However, investigative reports have not just revealed Rohith's antecedents and his life of suffering prejudice and discrimination, but also his letters to Hyderabad Central University faculty and his suicide note talk fervently about the "fatal accident of my birth" and how "the value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity…" amongst other horror tales of caste hatred and enmity in the campus. Does Swaraj need to be told that Rohith lived like a Dalit, died like one, with all the injustices and bigotry that come with it?

The question must be asked why has Swaraj come with this belated caste certificate for Rohith, hot on the heels of her colleague Smriti Irani, who has vociferously stated this is not a "Dalit vs non-Dalit" issue and even waved Rohith's suicide note to absolve her ministry and cabinet colleagues from being accessories to the suicide saying the late scholar does not blame "any university official, minister or MP"?

Modi government has been desperately trying to distance itself from the suicide by insisting caste has no role to play despite evidence of a blatant play of caste bigotry by university administration, Hindutva politics by the BJP's student wing ABVP, and direct interference by a BJP MP, Bandaru Dattatreya and Irani's HRD ministry in the fight between the Dalit group (ASA) and ABVP, leading to suspension of Dalit students, ouster from their hostel, and their stipends stopped.

By stating he's not a Dalit, and hence no caste discrimination, is this Swaraj's attempt to let the above off the hook?

Swaraj's rebuttal of Rohith's caste status has not only reinforced the RSS-BJP's political obsessions and beliefs, it has clubbed her with her political nemesis, the bellicose Smriti Irani.

The HRD minister was seen as the new, youthful Swaraj with all the Bharatiya nari trappings intact - of sari, sindoor, suhag - but that's where the similarities end, or that is what Swaraj perhaps believes. But with this utterance, Swaraj has misjudged the occasion of her intervention, of using her clout and sway. Instead, she looks like an also-ran.