BJP accused Congress of doing "hate politics" by dividing students on caste lines.
With the Modi government under fire over a Dalit research scholar's suicide in Hyderabad, BJP today accused Congress of doing "hate politics" by dividing students on caste lines and said "politicisation" of the death was more painful than the death itself.
BJP claimed that opposition parties had picked up the issue to derail the Modi government's development agenda and cited Congress lawmaker V Hanumantha Rao's letter to the HRD Ministry in November 2014 to say seven suicides had happened in three semesters in the University of Hyderabad.
Hitting out at Congress, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi offered no condolences over those suicides but was giving the death of Rohith Vemula an "angle" by underlining his Dalit identity.
"BJP is very pained at the death and we offer our deep condolences to his family. What is more painful is the way the incident is being politicised. Congress party divided the country on religious lines and is now doing the same along caste lines. It should not try to touch off a caste struggle. It should not do hate politics," Mr Sharma told reporters.
On the demand by several parties, including its ally LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan, that the case should be handed over to CBI, Mr Sharma said Telangana government can recommend it as law and order was a state subject. He said a probe was already on and truth will come out soon.
He also attacked Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, who addressed students in Hyderabad earlier today, saying he had reached there to do politics over the tragedy but never visited the house of any dengue victim or those dying of cold in the national capital.
Mr Sharma said it was a legacy of 60 years of Congress rule that caste identity was being raked up even in a matter concerning students and HRD Minister Smriti Irani and BJP were constrained to mention caste as they were being targeted over that. BJP has been labelled "anti-Dalit" by the opposition.
On recent attacks on churches, Dadri lynching and rationalist scholar MM Kalburgi's murder in Karnataka, he said the Modi government was being targeted over these issues but "nothing" came out of these allegations later. Similarly, the BJP was being attacked over the suicide by the research scholar, he said.
Mr Sharma said the same opposition parties were, however, silent on violence in Malda in West Bengal, Purnea in Bihar and communal incidents in UP.
"This selective silence and selective anger shows that their intentions are not honest," he said.