In January 2016, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula had committed suicide blaming discriminations in his educational institution, University of Hyderabad. On Monday, a 25-year-old MPhil scholar from JNU committed suicide and his last words on Facebook were: “When equality is denied everything is denied.”
Muthu Krishnan was known as Rajini Krish to his friends on Facebook. He was evidently an ardent fan of Tamil actor Rajinikanth.
In a video posted in August 2016, the scholar is seen mouthing the famous Kabali da dialogue from the movie.
His last post on Facebook from 10 March, bemoaned the “denial of equality” to the “marginals” in educational institutions. There is also a reference to the JNU administration’s attempts to thwart protests in the campus’ Freedom Square.
There is no Equality in M.phil/Phd Admission, there is no equality in Viva – voce, there is only denial of equality, denying Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat recommendation, denying Students protest places in Ad – block, denying the education of the Marginal’s. When Equality is denied everything is denied.
In a blog post written in 2016, Krishnan spoke about Rohith Vemula and his student activism.
I did not want to hurt her by recalling Rohith’s memories. I remembered myself with Rohith. I met Rohith six times. First time, I met Rohith at the south-campus shop com during a protest rally from the north campus. He was wearing a light gray color shirt, while me and prashanth was in a black shirt. He was enthusiastically raising slogans. That time I wondered why I never raised slogans. May be the language barrier, I told myself. But I was amazed with his leadership skills. (sic)
In an earlier post, Rajini spoke about the 28 times he laboured to get into JNU. The 27-year-old said he worked menial jobs, “saved” and “begged”, and eventually became the only one from Salem district to get selected in the central university.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)