BJP’s Vijayvargiya clarifies statement on Rohith’s suicide, blames media for distortion

Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Sunday accused the media of distorting his remarks on Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide, saying the incident is being probed and truth will come out soon.

“What I had said was that if any student who had a zeal to swim against the tide commits suicide, there must be something. But the media distorted my statement,” he said.

Speaking at a function in Kanpur, Vijayvargiya said the incident is being probed by a retired judge of a High court and the whole truth will come out soon.

Commenting on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s participation in the ongoing students’ protest at Hyderabad University, the BJP leader said Rahul’s protest is an excuse to disrupt the upcoming Budget session.

Vijayvargiya had earlier termed Rohith’s expulsion from Hyderabad University hostel as a “small incident”.

“The suicide of Vemula is unfortunate. He was a courageous youth who had a zeal to swim against the tide. Though a probe is on in his death, I don’t believe he committed suicide just because of a small incident of his expulsion from the hostel. I don’t think he took the extreme step because he was perturbed over his expulsion,” he had said yesterday.

Vijayvargiya, BJP’s in-charge of poll-bound West Bengal, alleged that the TMC government poses a threat to the internal security of the country due to cross-border arms, drug and currency trafficking.

He hoped that like Lok Sabha elections, BJP will perform very well in the upcoming Assembly polls in West Bengal.

The BJP leader said that his party was ready to enter into an alliance for the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

He also said that the PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir will continue.

PTI