Hyderabad: Rohith Vemula’s mother to launch anti-CAA yatra

HYDERABAD: On the fourth death anniversary of Rohith Vemula, his mother Radhika Vemula appealed to the Hyderabadis to take to the streets to protest the ‘unconstitutional policies’ of the central government. “I couldn’t save my son, but I want to save my nation,” she said on Friday.
On January 17, 2016, Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar, had committed suicide allegedly after facing caste-discrimination in the University of Hyderabad.The 26-year-old PhD student was found hanging in his hostel room.
Recalling what Rohith mentioned in his last letter, she said people are reduced to votes. “I am sad and enraged about what is happening with the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia Islamia. Even after four years of Rohith’s institutional murder, the situation in the country is same and students are not safe. They are being distinguished based on their caste and religion,” she added.
“I, along with Abeda Salim Tadvi and Fatima Nafees, would launch ‘Mothers for the Nation Yatra’ – a nationwide anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) tour, to mobilise support for united India and defend basic principles of Ambedkar’s Constitution,” Radhika Vemula said.
Fatima Nafees is mother of Najeeb Ahmed, a 27-year-old student of biotechnology at JNU, who went missing in October 2016, allegedly after a scuffle with ABVP members.
Abeda Salim Tadvi is mother of Payal Tadvi, a medical student from National Medical College and BYL Nair Hospital in Mumbai, who killed herself in May 2019, allegedly due to caste-discrimination.
Radhika also visited Rohith Vemula’s memorial in UoH and garlanded the statue. She said financial difficulties have kept her away from participating in any protest. She further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah should to prove their identity first by showing documents of their forefathers, before questioning others.
Speaking at the event ‘We The People of India’, Swaraj Abhiyan chief Yogendra Yadav said the fight against CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) have become a movement across the nation. Terming the movement as ‘Bharat Jodo Andolan’ like ‘Bharat Chhodo Andolan’ (Quit India Movement), he said the Centre will continue to divide and rule, but we will continue to unite and fight.
“We need to reclaim our Constitution. The freedom movement was to form a nation where people of all religions get equal rights,” Yadav said, adding that democracy, diversity and development have been put at stake by the government.
Stressing on the need to keep the protests non-violent, Yadav said, “Violence will lynch the movement and the only way we can achieve our aim is by remaining aggressively non-violent.”