Hyderabad: In an unpleasant evening in the last week of November 2013, when Rohith Vemula sat down with his close friend Ch. Ramji at a hangout in south campus of UoH, the students were yet to recover from the trauma of the suicide of PhD scholar M. Venkatesh.
Discussing the plight of students belonging to marginalised sections, Rohith had said: “These protests and media coverage will die out in a few days. Dalit students will continue to be harassed here.” He indicated more students might commit suicide due to the harassment of the UoH administration.
Earlier that year, Rohith had cracked the CISR fellowship and went to distribute sweets to his professors.
One of the professors “was reluctant to take the sweets, Rohith told us one day. The professor was shocked because many upper caste students did not clear JRF. He asked him to leave the sweets on the table”, said Thongam Bipin, a friend of Rohith’s.
A few days after the incident, Rohith again told his friends that the professor had asked him if he had cleared the exam because he belonged to the reservation category.
