An open letter from Radhika Vemula to the Prime Minister
Jai Bhim everyone,
My name is Radhika Vemula. I am Rohith Vemula’s mother. This International Women’s Day, I wish to address the Prime Minister and the general public of this country as well.
My world was so different before 2016. My children were my life and my whole world.
But for my son Rohith, his world had been much bigger. He envisioned a world in which Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and the oppressed people were all included and given equality. After his passing, my world too has expanded.
Rohith leaving us means that I have to take his legacy forward. And I have been doing just that. I have stood with students from marginalized communities and I always will fight for student’s rights.
But it hasn’t been easy. I wish that no more mothers face the problems and struggles that I have seen and experienced since losing my son in 2016. But the things that have been happening in this country in the past few years are all events that are creating more mothers like me, mothers bereft of their children. Struggling mothers, mothers in pain.
Atrocities are being expanded outside of the universities. It has now spread to everyone in society. There are many more mothers like me who are waiting for justice. To name a few, Najeeb’s mother, Jisha’s mother, Asifa’s mother, Fatima’s mother, Payal Tadvi’s mother, Anita’s mother, Delta’s mother and many more. In the past few months, I have been saddened to see more and more Muslim mothers losing their children to outright violence targeted against their families too. My greetings and Jai Bhim to all the mothers on the occasion of International Women’s day.
To the Prime Minister who seems to have an agenda against Muslims in this country, I say the following. I want to ask, “Can’t you see the problems of the Muslim women who have been protesting since December at Shaheen Bagh?” In the last few months, we witnessed the loss of many lives during CAA/NRC protests and the recent Delhi pogroms. Did you meet the survivors, the families and did you call on them to find if they are safe or if they need help? How are you going to punish the culprits who were behind these recent pogroms? We have seen how non-BJP party members are being questioned about their involvement in the Delhi riots. What about your party members? What action are you gonna take against them? Why blame the survivors in this incident. They might have been trying to protect themselves and their families. But I have now been on the ground where the riots took place, I have seen, first hand, who the violence was aimed at. Every single house, business and mosque burned tells the story of a pogrom against Muslims only. As a mother, I want to know what steps your government is going to take to support survivors of violence.
You provided subsidy on gas for the women of this nation. Great. But why did you quietly increase the rates later? When you were the Chief Minister of Gujarat, you protested against the then ruling government against the increased rates of gas, petrol, diesel, fall in GDP growth, violence against women, unemployment and so on. Now it is your government that is in the centre. Now, what about these things? How would you address this?
You keep saying that ours is a vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is one family), our country is one family and you are the head of this family. Isn’t it? Since you took over as the PM in 2014, how much are we in debt? How much is the RBI treasure worth? And why did you sell the PSUs? And how much is the profit? Where and how did you spend that money? Please do share the details. It is my appeal.
Since the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) got passed, we have witnessed hate crimes across Assam to Karnataka. It has taken many lives and left many homeless. People are still protesting bravely. The state has remained largely silent on these deaths and silently witnessed Delhi burning.
This women’s day, on behalf of all the mothers who lost their families, I want to appeal to the Prime Minister, it isn’t enough to give up your social media accounts for a day to women. If you really want to show your gratitude to women, take back CAA/NRC/NPR. Give us justice. Give us our homes back. Stop killing our children.
Sincerely,
Radhika Vemula