Rahul Gandhi urges Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah to enact Rohith Vemula Act for ending caste-based discrimination

The assurance comes in response to a letter from Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who wrote to Siddaramaiah on April 16 urging the enactment of the Act in the state. Gandhi invoked the tragic deaths of Rohith Vemula, Payal Tadvi, and Darshan Solanki — all young students who allegedly died by suicide after facing caste-based discrimination in higher education institutions.

“The murder of bright young people like Rohith Vemula, Payal Tadvi and Darshan Solanki is simply not acceptable. It is time to put a firm end to this,” Gandhi wrote. “I urge the Karnataka government to enact the Rohith Vemula Act so that no child of India has to face what Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Rohith Vemula and millions of others have had to endure.”\

Rahul Gandhi also quoted extensively from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s childhood experiences of caste oppression to stress the continued relevance of Ambedkar’s struggle in present-day India. He described how, even today, students from Dalit, Adivasi, and OBC communities face “brutal discrimination in our educational system.”