Rahul digs out Rohit Vemula, Dadri lynching issues to corner Modi Govt

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre while digging out issues including Rohith Vemula suicide case, Dadri lynching case and demonetisation drive.

Raising the Rohith Vemula suicide case, the Congress vice president said that he didn't commit suicide and was murdered for being a Dalit.

"I don't call it suicide; I call it murder. Rohit (Vemula) was crushed and murdered by the indignities he suffered," said Gandhi while speaking at DR. B.R. Ambedkar International Conference.

He further added that Vemula was killed only because he was a Dalit.

Rohith Vemula, a PhD student at the University of Hyderabad, had allegedly committed suicide last year sparking a nationwide outrage.

Vemula's suicide gained widespread media attention as an alleged case of discrimination against Dalits.

Rahul also alleged that most of the institutions in the country have been captured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the bureaucrats and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"What is happening today is the systematic capture of India's democratic institutions by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bureaucrats and the RSS," he said.

"The emperor is completely naked but nobody around him has the courage to tell him," he added.

Further targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Union Government, the Congress leader also trained his guns at cow vigilantism by raising the Dadri lynching case.

"Mohammad Akhlaq was butchered because they say he stole a calf. It was a lie. Instead of questioning his (Akhlaq) brutal killing they asked whether the meat in the fridge was mutton or beef," he added.

Last year, a mob of villagers attacked a 52-year-old man named Muslim man Mohammed Akhlaq, who they suspected of stealing and slaughtering a stolen cow calf, in Bisara village near Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.

Akhlaq died in the attack, and his son, Danish, was seriously injured.

Gandhi also took a dig at the Centre over its demonetisation drive which was introduced on 8 November last year.

"Publicly they called it a stroke of genius and privately they called it insanity," he said.

The Central Government announced the demonetisation of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 currency notes claiming it would help curtail the flow of black money and crackdown on the use of illicit and counterfeit cash to fund illegal activity and terrorism.

The Congress vice-president arrived in Bengaluru on Friday for the inauguration the three-day B.R. Ambedkar international conference on social justice.