Opposition used Rohith Vemula's mother for political gain, says BJP

Mumbai: Day after a report claimed that Radhika Vemula, mother of Rohith Vemula, slammed the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) for making “false promises” and using her family for “political gains”, the BJP on Wednesday accused the opposition of playing politics over Rohith Vemula’s death.

“Indian Union Muslim League made fake promises to provide them Rs 20 lakh and asked them (Rohith Vemula's family) to address their rallies and misrepresent the unfortunate incident and then not completed that promise. This is condemnable,” Union Minister Piyush Goyal said.

According to a report in The News Minute, after Rohith hung himself from a hostel room, the Muslim League had promised his mother Radhika Vemula that they would sanction Rs 20 lakh towards building a house for the family. However, the family continues to wait for full compensation.

Radhika alleged that the IUML gained good political strength because they had projected her as one of the main guests attending several meetings.

"Of all the states, I have travelled most to Kerala. The person in question, CK Subair, (General Secretary of Youth Wing of Kerala unit of Muslim League) would always tell us that there are victims of other incidents of atrocities who are attending the meet and I would go there to visit and talk to them," she said.

“In such a context, how can use they make promises and use it for political gain?" she asked.

However, Rohith’s mother today retracted from her statement and said that the IUML has not used her for political gains and she spoke against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on her own will.

“It's true that Indian Union Muslim League promised to provide me with money, but they haven't used me for political gains. It was my wish to speak against PM Modi and if needed I will speak again in any of their meeting,” Radhika told news agency ANI.

She added that one of the cheques IUML sent her had bounced but the party promised to directly transfer money.  “Indian Union Muslim League sent us two cheques of Rs 2.5 lakh out of which one has bounced. We informed them and they said they will directly provide us money so that we can buy a house,” she said.

Piyush Goyal also criticised the opposition of giving fake assurances to Rohith’s mother and using her for political purposes.

“I was anxious after reading Rohith Vemula's mother's statement. Till when some opposition parties will continue politics over it? The family is not financially stable and fake assurance of money was provided to a distressed mother for political purposes,” he said.

Goyal also sought an apology from Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for doing petty politics.

“I received info that even Congress President took them (Vemula's family) to stages and asked them to make statements. It should be exposed what was the intention behind it and what was offered. Rahul Gandhi should apologise for doing petty politics on pillar of lies.”

The Union Minister further claimed that Rohith’s mother is being forced to retract her statements.

“The statements of Rohith Vemula's mother are all before us, I believe there was an effort made to pressurise the mother to retract from what she had said, probably again on the pretext of giving her some money,” Goyal said.

Rohith Vemula, a Dalit student and PhD scholar of University of Hyderabad, committed suicide in January 2016. This led to a massive controversy with the Opposition labelling it as a case of atrocities against Dalits.