Vijayvargiya clarifies his ‘small incident’ remark on Rohith’s suicide

Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya clarified his “small incident” remark on Rohith Vemula’s suspension from the Hyderbad university hostel that led to his suicide, accusing media of distorting his comment on the Dalit scholar’s suicide.

On Saturday, Vijayvargiya had said: “The suicide of Vemula is unfortunate. He was a courageous youth who had a zeal to swim against the tide. Though a probe is on in his death, I don’t believe he committed suicide just because of a small incident of his expulsion from the hostel. I don’t think he took the extreme step because he was perturbed over his expulsion.”

Vijayvargiya had further sparked a row on Sunday saying: “One who protested against the execution of terrorists, one who said he feels like sin whenever he sees saffron colour, one who publicly announced to organise beef party, one who offered namaz for terrorists like Yakub Memon cannot be a weak youth, who would have committed suicide.”

Seeking to clean up the issue, he said the media had misquoted him. “What I had said was that if any student who had a zeal to swim against the tide commits suicide, there must be something. But the media distorted my statement,” he said.

Speaking at a function in Kanpur on Sunday, Vijayvargiya said the incident is being probed by a retired judge of a high court and the whole truth will come out soon.

“I think those people who are responsible for his suicide are the ones who are agitating to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. Once the probe is complete, these people would get exposed,” Vijayvargiya maintained.

Earlier, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had said facts pointed out Vemula was not a Dalit. “The facts have come out in the case and as per as my complete knowledge, that student (Rohith) was not a Dalit. By calling him a Dalit student, this whole case has been raised a communal incident by some people,” Swaraj was quoted.

Vijayvargiya’s terming the expulsion of Rohith from Hyderabad University hostel as a “small incident” gave some ammo to the opponents. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Ashutosh tweeted, “BJP/RSS is again insulting Dalits Kailash Vijayvargiya is hinting Rohit Bemula as a terrorist. Sushma is refusing to accept him as Dalit.”

Commenting on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s participation in the ongoing students’ protest at Hyderabad University, the BJP leader said Rahul’s protest is an excuse to disrupt the upcoming Budget session.

Vijayvargiya, BJP’s in-charge of poll-bound West Bengal, alleged that the TMC government poses a threat to the internal security of the country due to cross-border arms, drug and currency trafficking.

He hoped that like Lok Sabha elections, BJP will perform very well in the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal. The BJP leader said that his party was ready to enter into an alliance for the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. He also said that the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir will continue.