In January 2016, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula had committed suicide blaming discriminations in his educational institution, University of Hyderabad. On Monday, a 25-year-old MPhil scholar from JNU committed suicide and his last words on Facebook were: “When equality is denied everything is denied.”
Muthu Krishnan was known as Rajini Krish to his friends on Facebook. He was evidently an ardent fan of Tamil actor Rajinikanth.
In a video posted in August 2016, the scholar is seen mouthing the famous Kabali da dialogue from the movie.
His last post on Facebook from 10 March, bemoaned the “denial of equality” to the “marginals” in educational institutions. There is also a reference to the JNU administration’s attempts to thwart protests in the campus’ Freedom Square.
In a blog post written in 2016, Krishnan spoke about Rohith Vemula and his student activism.
In an earlier post, Rajini spoke about the 28 times he laboured to get into JNU. The 27-year-old said he worked menial jobs, “saved” and “begged”, and eventually became the only one from Salem district to get selected in the central university.