Rohith's caste kicks off storm, his tiff with ABVP over poster goes viral

Hyderabad/Guntur: A controversy arose over the caste of Rohith Vemula, with self-declared documents filed his parents showing that they belong to the Vaddera community — a Backward Classes group — surfacing on Tuesday.

Rohith’s father Manikumar and mother Radhika had filed the papers with officials of the Guntur revenue department.

Rohith’s family rubbished these claims and said that they belong to the SC community.

Gurazala mandal tahsildar Phanindra Babu said the documents of declaration were filed by Rohith’s parents with the mandal revenue inspector in 2014 for the birth certificate of his brother Vemula Rajach-aitanya Kumar.

The application had been made by Rohith’s grandfather Vemula Venkateswarlu.

Mr Phanindra Babu said, “The caste of Raja-chaityanya Kumar was Vaddera as per documents submitted to us and the officials conducted an inquiry and issued the birth certificate.”

Asked about the certificate, Rohith’s brother Rajachaitanya said: “It is a lie to say that we belong to the BC community. We belong to the SC Mala community. We required certificates of my brother. Instead of focusing on why my brother ended his life they want to divert the issue.”

BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy said, “As per certain documents that surfaced on the social media, Rohith belongs to Vaddera caste. There is a video also posted on social media which shows Rohith's grandmother saying his family belongs to the Vaddera community.”

ABVP leader A. Giri Prasad distributed the documents to the media.

A senior intelligence official of TS police said, "Rohith's caste issue has come to our notice. As a case is booked under the SC/ST Atrocities Act (on Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya) we will investigate which caste Rohith belonged to."

Meanwhile, A video that was leaked on Tuesday purports to show ABVP activists questioning PhD scholar Rohith Vemula for tearing up their poster.

Rohith is heard saying in the video that he did not like saffron and Hindutva. The incident is said to have occurred last year. An ABVP activist apparently recorded the video on a mobile phone during the incident.

“Will you tear anything related to saffron even if that is in your home,” an ABVP activist asks Rohith. “Yes I will,” he replies.

However, no complaint was been made to the university regarding the tearing up of the poster.

The video was widely shared by BJP and RSS activists on social media to accuse Rohith of being “anti-Hindu.”