‘I hope she remembers Rohith Vemula’: Smriti Irani trails in Amethi Lok Sabha election results

NEW DELHI: Students have a special beef with Smriti Irani. She was education minister when University of Hyderabad’s PhD student and Dalit scholar, Rohit Vemula took his own life after being hounded out of his hostel by the UoH administration on complaint of the right-wing students and BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya, who was an accused for the abetment of Vemula’suicide. She was also education minister when Jawaharlal Nehru University students were accused of sedition in February 2016.

At about 6:30 pm on Tuesday, Smriti Irani, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate from Amethi, was trailing behind Indian National Congress’ Kishori Lal by more than 16,000 votes. The Lok Sabha election results were announced on Tuesday.

The former minister was in charge of the education ministry – then known as ministry of human resource development – when Rohit Vemula died by suicide alleging discrimination by faculty.

The minister, in an angry response in parliament, had called the incident the “death of a child and not a death of a Dalit” and said that Vemula’s death was being used as a “political weapon” by the opposition. Many students’ unions and political leaders had demanded Smirit Irani’s resignation during the incident. “I hope Smriti Irani remembers Rohit Vemula today. I hope all of India remembers today how JNU students were subject to hate and violence from 2016 to 2020 and onwards on the basis of false allegations against all of non ABVP students of JNU,” said an X (formerly Twitter) user reflecting on the result.

I hope Smriti Irani remembers Rohit Vemula today.

I hope all of India remembers today how JNU students were subject to hate and violence from 2016 to 2020 and onwards on the basis of false allegations against all of non ABVP students of JNU. I hope we remember Najeeb

— Shaheen Ahmed (@Aakori_Baakori) June 4, 2024

“Justice for Rohith Vemula. The defeat of former HRD Minister Smriti Irani is no less feat. Rohith, your fight for social justice will continue!” said N Sai Balaji, former JNUSU president on X.

JNU sedition case

Irani was also in charge when JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid, along with other students, were booked for sedition for allegedly raising “anti-India” slogans. Both incidents had triggered weeks-long protests across universities including in University of Delhi, Jadavpur University, Osmania University, Aligarh Muslim University, among others.

“Several analyst predict that in Amethi, Smriti Irani is losing to Kishori Lal. That would be wonderful. In Feb 2016 speech, after Rohith Vemula's suicide, she refused to take responsibility, resented Rahul Gandhi visiting Hyderabad University, and lashed out at UmarKhalid and Kanhaiya Kumar,” a post by Meena Dhanda on X said.

Remembering Rohit’s Vemula today. Smriti Irani deserves that loss for his institutional murder and for the destruction of Indian public education system. The voters of Amethi, derr aaye, durust aaye!

— Ajapa Sharma (@Ajapa_Sharma) June 4, 2024

Kumar himself joined Congress, contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk constituency but lost. Umar Khalid was later accused in a rioting case and has been held without a bail hearing for close to two years. Irani was later replaced by Prakash Javadekar.

More recently, Irani, who held the women and child development portfolio last, triggered a row by opposing menstrual leave in offices and educational institutions by saying menstruation is not a “handicap”.

The last education minister before the election, BJP’s Dharmendra Pradhan has won his seat in Sambalpur, Odisha.