Delhi: Student doing MPhil in JNU found dead

HYDERABAD: An alumnus of University of Hyderabad (UoH) Muthukrishnan , committed suicide by hanging himself at a friend's place in Delhi's Munirka on Monday.The news comes a year after Rohith Vemula ’s death that jolted the entire nation.According to students, Muthukrishnan too belonged to the Scheduled Caste and was an active member of the justice for Rohith Vemula movement. He was pursuing MPhil in JNU and is a native of Salem in Tamil Nadu.Expressing shock over the incident, a member of the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice recalled how Muthukrishnan was an active student in all Dalit movements. "We are in deep shock over the incident. He was such a bright student and a prolific writer," said a member of JAC, recalling how last year he had written an article on Vemula’s mother Radhika on his personal blog.In his blog, he elaborated how he met Rohith six times before he took the extreme step on January 17, 2016. "All the intellectuals from the marginalised communities will get arrested just for mocking fictional characters. At the same time, all the leading national institutes will be headed by people who cannot even clear the 10th standard exam. These people claim dissenters as anti-nationals and seditious. They are going to kill many Rohiths, like us, just for eating beef, for being rational, for being intellectually productive for the country. But we are the real sons of this land and after we are all killed, there will be no nation," Muthukrishnan stated in his blog titled "a universal mother without a nation".As the news broke, Muthukrishnan 's Facebook profile was flooded with messages from students across universities. "When equality is denied everything is denied. 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," read Muthukrishnan’s last post on Facebook.Students expressed shock and grief over his suicide. "Heartbreaking news! RIP Muthukrishnan .I don't know why do you end your life journey in the middle. You have overcome several obstacles to acquire higher education. I never expect this from you," shared Vincent Benny, former UoH students’ union president on Facebook.