Rohith Vemula's mother, brother say goodbye to Hinduism; embrace new faith

April 14, 2016

Mumbai, Apr 14: Mother and brother of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide at Hyderabad Central University in January sparking strong protests across the country, today embraced Buddhism on the occasion of Dr B R Ambedkar's 125th birth anniversary.

VemulaRohith's mother Radhika and brother Naga Chaitanya Vemula, also known as Raja Vemula, were given 'deeksha' at a function in Dadar here in the presence of Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar.

Ambedkar, Dalit icon and architect of the Indian Constitution, coverted to Buddhism at a grand ceremony in Nagpur in 1956 as he was strongly opposed to the caste system in Hindusim. At the venue of the deeksha ceremony, the mother-son duo paid tributes to Dr Ambedkar and bowed before his portrait.

Raja Vemula said, "My brother Rohith was a Buddhist at heart although he did not convert. He took his own life as he was discriminated because he was a Dalit. We performed his last rites according to Buddhist traditions, honouring his love for Buddhism."

"Rohith used to talk of Buddhism a lot. He had also written a letter to the Vice Chancellor about how Dalits are discriminated against on the campus. My mother feels that we should honour Rohith by embracing Buddhism," he said.

"We are against the caste system in Hinduism and have, therefore, decided to embrace Buddhism which does not have such an oppressive system of castes," Rohith's brother said.

Prakash Ambedkar said Buddhist monks gave 'deeksha' to Rohith's mother and brother at a function on the sidelines of a programme marking the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar.

"The function to covert the duo to Buddhism was organised after Radhika Vemula approached me and conveyed their wish to embrace Buddhism when I visited Hyderabad recently," he said.

Raja and Radhika Vemula, along with Rohith's childhood friend Riyaz Shaikh and Hyderabad university student Charbad Raju, had left for Mumbai from Hyderabad yesterday. Rohith's elder sister, who is married, has not converted to Buddhism.

Rohith Vemula, 27, committed suicide on January 17 in a hostel room in Hyderabad Central University where he was a PhD scholar after he and four others were suspended from the hostel last year and restrictions were put on their movement by the university administration as part of disciplinary action for allegedly assaulting ABVP leader N Susheel Kumar.

Comments

Dean
 - 
Thursday, 14 Apr 2016

We welcome Dalits to convert to Islam for peaceful dignified life. In sha Allah

Ahmed
 - 
Thursday, 14 Apr 2016

Islaam is the only religion which last long.So learn Islam.

Dean
 - 
Thursday, 14 Apr 2016

Majority of Muslims converted to Islam in India are from Buddism.

HUMANS PONDER
 - 
Thursday, 14 Apr 2016

ALLAH says in QURAN 49:13
O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female and have made you into nations and tribes for you to know one another. Truly, the noblest of you with God is the MOST PIOUS. Truly God is all knowing, All aware.

Prophet of ALLAH (Mohammad pbuh) said : Lend me an attentive ear.
All mankind is from Adam & Eve, An Arab has NO Superiority over a Non Arab NOR a Non Arab has any superiority over An Arab, also a WHITE has No superiority over a Black, Nor a Black has any superiority over a White EXCEPT BY PIETY and GOOD ACTION.
Remember ONE DAY U will appear before ALLAH and answer YOUR DEEDS. So beware, Do not stray from the path of RIGHTEOUSNESS after Im Gone.

A very beautiful teaching which kills the RACISM from the SOCIETY...
THANK YOU ALLAH for making me A MUSLIM

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News Network
June 28,2020

Udupi, Jun 28: The Padubidri police have booked cases against two patients of Novel Coronavirus for not revealing their primary contacts and hiding their travel history.

According to DHO Sudhirchandra Sooda, two siblings from Hejamadi in Padubidri had tested positive for COVID-19 recently. After shifting to the hospital, when the officials asked them about their primary contacts and travel history, the patients furnished false information.

When the officials collected information from various sources, they realised that the duo had travelled to Bantwal, Kasargod, Ullal and other places in Dakshina Kannada, said Dr Sooda. Hence, the district administration decided to file cases against them, he added.

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June 30,2020

Udupi, June 30: A girl who appeared for SSLC exams in three subjects tested positive for COVID-19 in Kundapur taluk of Udupi district today.

Sheshashayana Karinja, Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) said that the 15-year-old girl had a headache and her parents took her for testing and she had tested positive for COVID-19.

She will appear for the remaining three subjects during the supplementary exams in August.

The room where the girl appeared for the exam had been sanitised. But exams would not be held in that room. All precautions have been taken in that exam centre in Kundapur taluk, Mr. Karinja said.

The other 19 students will be allowed to write their exams as there was a distance of one metre between them and there was no contact between the students during the exams, Mr. Karinja added.

It is learned that a couple of months ago, a Mumbai returnee who recovered from COVID-19 had visited the girl’s house. However, it is not clear that she got an infection from the Mumbai returnee.

It could be recalled here that a student from Hejamadi in Udupi district who was preparing for the Science exam had tested positive two days back and she is currently being treated at a hospital.

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News Network
January 18,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 18: Amidst the ongoing probe into the multi-billion IMA ponzi scam, another similar scam has come to light in the city wherein around 2500 depositors, most of them Muslims, are fearing that them may lose Rs 350 crore.

Shockingly, Shafiullah, Rafiullah, and Zabiullah, three brothers who run the Baraka Investment Consultant Private Limited, have accused the police of taking over 10 crore rupees bribe from them.

The depositors say that when they recently demanded their investments back from the accused the trio, they allegedly told them that they had paid the Central Crime Branch (CCB) and the RT Nagar police over 10 crores and they could collect that money from the police.

The aggrieved investors alleges that the RT Nagar police have charge-sheeted the three accused only on the complaints of 13 affected depositors who lost precisely Rs 97 lakh and the case is being probed under the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 instead of Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Institutions Act, 2004 (KPID Act) or the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019 (BUDS) Ordinance.

Aggrieved victims alleged that when the Baraka Investment Consultants had a Registration Certificate of Establishments from Department of Labour issued on November 28, 2017. The CCB took up a suo-motu case against Tellnet Computers on August 16, 2018, after they received complaints from Baraka investors.

Apparently, the CCB knew that Baraka Investment Consultants and Tellnet Computers was one and the same and operating from the same office, but they did not mention the name of Baraka in the case initially for reasons best known to them, said the victims of the Ponzi scheme. A few victims who wished to remain anonymous told BM that a CCB police inspector and one of the accused, Zabiullah, were childhood friends, neighbours and both hailed from Chikkaballapur. This is one of the reasons, they allege, the inspector has protected the accused by downplaying the scam.

The case registered by the CCB states that there are only 500 to 600 depositors who deposited amounts between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh expecting returns ranging from Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 a month, but in reality there are more than 2500 investors who have deposited amounts ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 50 lakh, expecting returns between 12% to 24%, said the victims. Despite this, the CCB was sitting on the case and making no investigations, the victims alleged.

It was later on in May 9, 2019, an FIR was registered by the RT Nagar police when many victims approached the police commissioner and petitioned him. “Even in this case, the accused Zabiullah was not arrested. Zabiullah’s two brothers, Shafiullah and Rafiullah, and his father Abdul Rahman were arrested, but were later granted conditional bails,” one of the victims Mohammed Yahya (42), a software engineer said.

Yahya had invested Rs 10 lakh with Baraka. “Though this case has been charge-sheeted, the police have not made any recoveries or they have not confiscated any properties of the accused,” alleged victim Habibur Rehman (42) who had invested Rs 5 lakh in Baraka. “There is clear-cut evidence that the accused was dealing in foreign exchange using the investors’ money without their knowledge and was offshoring and parking crores and crores in countries like Russia, Dubai, Malaysia, and Singapore. Though the police knew about this, they did nothing to stop it or bring it back,” said Azgar Pasha (44), a businessman who had invested Rs 41 lakh.

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