Mayawati, Yechury take on Smriti

The opposition that had walked out during Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani’s reply in the Lok Sabha on Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the charges of sedition against students in JNU, mounted a concerted fight back in the Rajya Sabha, with rhetorical flourishes and a questioning of facts from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

BSP chief Mayawati had been demanding the inclusion of a Dalit in the panel probing the suicide of Vemula, and attacked the government for appointing a one-man judicial commission of former Allahabad High Court judge Ashok Kumar Roopanwal.

“To my question whether a Dalit member is part of the commission, the government has not answered so far. On February 24, I had asked this question. Justice Roopanwal is from the upper caste. The government’s intention is dubious,” Ms Mayawati said.

CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury took on Ms Irani on certain facts in her reply to the short duration discussion.

Mr Yechury said Vemula, in his letter written a month before he committed suicide, had said he should be given a rope, which indicated the state of his mind. “What did the university do,” he asked. “You have pushed the child to commit suicide, it is virtually a murder,” he said referring to Vemula’s death and the actions of the government preceding it.

“The Minister quoted back Macbeth at me yesterday (Thursday) saying ‘fair is foul, foul is fair’. She is making all foul fair in the way that she is twisting facts,” said Mr. Yechury.

Govt. pushed Vemula to suicide: Yechury

CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday confronted HRD Minister Smriti Irani in the Rajya Sabha on certain facts about the suicide of Dalit student Rohit Vemula mentioned in her reply to the discussion in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Mr. Yechury said Vemula, in his letter written a month before he committed suicide, had said he should be given a rope, which indicated the state of his mind. “What did the University do,” Mr. Yechury asked. “You have pushed the child to commit suicide; it is virtually a murder,” he said.

“The Minister quoted back Macbeth at me yesterday [Thursday] saying ‘fair is foul, foul is fair’. She is making all foul fair in the way that she is twisting facts,” said Mr. Yechury.

Questioning the veracity of the Facebook account that Ms Irani claimed was that of Vemula, Mr Yechury said, “Can a Facebook account be authenticated? Can ‘quotes’ from the ‘cyberspace’ be permitted without the same being authenticated?” He insisted that nothing should go on rec0ord in the House without being authenticated. Ms. Irani had quoted from a purported Facebook post by Vemula critical of Mr. Yechury and the CPI(M).