Rohith no hero as he killed self rather than fighting: BJP leader

CHANDIGARH: Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Sambit Patra on Wednesday said there was “no need to make a hero out of Rohith Vemula”, the Dalit research scholar at the Hyderabad central university who had committed suicide after alleged harassment by the administration.

“Suicide is even worse than killing someone. The one who kills his soul, the one who fails to fight for his cause, should never be made a hero. One has to fight but not give up or die,” said Patra at a seminar here.

Patra added, though, “Rohit Vemula had his own ideas and everyone has the right to fight for his own ideas in a democracy... Prime Minister Narendra Modi also mentioned him as the nation’s child.”

“I am addressing a gathering of youngsters, and you need to decide who should be a hero. We don’t need to make Rohith Vemula a hero. If you face any atrocity, fight against it, raise your voice but don’t kill yourself. Many leaders in the country, including Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, say Rohith was a hero. You should fight for the problems or issues which bothered Rohith, such as the caste system... We should fight along with our Dalit brothers. We should continue our fight but not end ourselves.”

“Be it any gover nment... caste issues have always been there; but that does not mean that we should end our life or give up fighting,” Patra asserted.

He also said, “Those who compare Kanhaiya Kumar (Jawaharlal Nehru University student’s union president) with Bhagat Singh would not know what nationalism is.”

Taking another dig at the Cong ress, he said, “Sonia Gandhi (Congress president) getting disturbed after seeing bodies of terrorists in the Batla House encounter only shows the kind of nationalism the Congress believes in”.

The seminar on ‘National Security Threats in India 2020’ was organised by the Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena Foundation and Citizen-4-Forces.