Was Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula a Christian? If true, Hindus are "under siege": BJP's Subramaniam Swamy

By Our Representative

Senior BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy, lately gone very close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said, if it is proved that Rohith Vemula -- the 27-year-old University of Hyderabad Dalit scholar who committed suicide -- was a “converted Christian and Opus Dei”, then “it is a new dimension of Hindus under siege.”
According to Wikipedia, Opus Dei is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. “The majority of its members are lay people, with secular priests under the governance of a prelate (bishop) elected by specific members and appointed by the Pope”, it says.
While it is not known if this is the official line of the BJP on seeking to consider Rohith a Christian, Swamy’s declaration, as a tweet, comes close on the heels of Hindutva social media fans seeking to provide concrete “proof” that the Dalit scholars was, indeed, a Christian, who “converted” to Christianity in 2005.

One of them, Suresh Kochattil, whose Facebook profile says he “works with BJP”, says, “Rohit's father Manikumar, uncle Venkateswarlu and grandmother give a statement today (January 21) at Madhapur ACP Ramana Kumar at Gurazala in Guntur district, confirming that the family is from Vaddera BC community and that they are not Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST). They informed the ACP that in 2005, Rohith and his mother converted to Christianity.”

The effort to declare Vermula a Christian, significantly, comes just two days after efforts to prove Rohith was not a Dalit but  an Other Backward Class (OBC) proved to be incorrect.
A top media site reports, “As a proof, a snapshot of a caste certificate was offered. The source of the certificate, printed in Telugu, remains unknown. It shows that Vemula Radhika, Rohith's mother, having signed a certificate declaring her other son, Vemula Raja, as a ‘Vaddera’, a caste which is categorised as OBC.”
Following this, the site says, “Several journalists reached out to the family and friends of Rohith to ask them what the issue was here. They were not happy to hear such questions, but answers were given.”
It adds, “First proof offered was Rohith’s own caste certificate, issued by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. NDTV’s Uma Sudhir tweeted it out first. The certificate clearly states that Rohith was a ‘Mala’, a caste categorized as SC in the state. That's the certificate below.”
However, said the site, “the questions did not stop here – what if he had faked the certificate before entering the University? Why is his brother’s certificate showing OBC?” The site’s correspondent asked the mother, who said, “When I was pregnant with the third kid my husband left us. My kids don't even recognize their dad. So my husband is a Vaddera (BC) and I'm a Mala (SC).”
The site further says, “We also reached out to one of Rohith’s close friends, Chittibabu Padavala, for an explanation, and he told us the following: ‘The idea that father's caste automatically or mandatorily passes on to the kids is the typical Hindu's ignorant idea. Law is far more enlightened’.”
Padavala adds, “Children born of couples of different castes can choose either of their parent's caste. Misusing this Hindu ignorance by Hindutva demagogues is understandable if unacceptable. But media allowing and misusing its space and time to for such clearly verifiable fact is really the issue, from the point of view of media criticism."
The site wonders, “But even if he was proven to be a Vaddera on record, how does it matter? The issues being raised are of discrimination of caste within the campus, and the political intervention in it. He identified himself as a Dalit. He was a Dalit as per records. He fought what he thought was discrimination against him based on his identity.”