THE central executive committee of the Students’ Federation of India in a statement issued on October 7, has said that the AK Roopanwal commission report is erroneous and vacuous.

A one member judicial commission headed by former judge of Allahabad high court AK Roopanwal was formed to look into the circumstances, which led to the ‘institutional murder’ of Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University. In a shameful turn of events this commission has tried to whitewash the bloodied hands of RSS-BJP and the HCU administration, by violating all legal parameters and going well beyond its jurisdiction to claim that Rohith’s mother faked the ‘dalit identity’ for herself and her family. The commission has given a clean chit to the VC Appa Rao and the university administration. This has happened when concrete evidences suggest the role of university administration, BJP leaders and the RSS-ABVP nexus in creating conditions forcing Rohith to kill himself, the statement said.

In fact, the RSS-BJP-ABVP nexus to discredit the historic movement following Rohith’s ‘institutional murder’ has used this narrative earlier. Such cheap tactics have failed to deter the movement and we are confident that it will not work this time as well. The movement against the institutional murder of Rohith has now taken the shape of wider movement against caste injustices and brahmanical hegemony in our higher educational institutions. No machinations of the current regime can weaken our movement, said the statement.

SFI has demanded that this erroneous and vacuous report be rejected lock, stock and barrel.

In a separate statement issued on October 8, the Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) has demanded that the Roopanwal Commission report be rejected completely.

This report is based on false information which serves the interests of culprits who were booked under the POA Act. DSMM has urged the Telangana government to arrest the culprits immediately. It asked the central government to enact Rohith Law to protect socially backward students from barbarous attacks in all educational institutes.